Guillaumin verger
Armand GUILLAUMIN (1841-1927)
"Orchard at the edge of a wood in Saint-Cheron" Oil on canvas, 73 x 92 cm Signed lower left "Guillaumin"
About the artist
Armand Guillaumin is a French painter, lithographer and designer, born February 16, 1841 in Paris, and died June 26, 1927 in Orly. He was one of the first and most loyal participants of the Impressionist group. Originally from Moulins, Armand Guillaumin moved to Paris in 1857 to work there with his uncle Besnard. He took evening classes with the sculptor Louis Denis Caillouette. In 1860, he joined the Compagnie du chemin de fer from Paris to Orléans. The following year, he met Paul Cézanne and Camille Pissarro at the Swiss Academy and participated in the Salon des refusés of 1863. In the early 1870s, he painted in Pontoise with Pissarro. There he developed his taste for landscape painting. Joined by Cézanne, they painted on the banks of the Seine around 1873. Armand Guillaumin painted views of the banks of the Seine and more particularly views of Ivry-sur-Seine, Clamart and Charenton, in the southern suburbs of Paris . These views testify to the artist's strong preference for water, a motif that was to become one of his favorite subjects. At that time, Guillaumin was already using a palette with fairly high tones. Armand Guillaumin is loyal to the Impressionist group. He participates in six of the eight exhibitions of Impressionist painters. He was present in particular at the First Exhibition of Impressionist Painters in 1874 and the last in 1886. Friend of Cézanne, he was also close to Van Gogh who appreciated Guillaumin's talent as a colourist and his palette of bright colors. He married in 1887 with Marie-Josephine Gareton, a teacher at the Lycée Fénelon, from the Creuse. Edgar Degas and Paul Gauguin are his witnesses. They will have four children: Madeleine in 1888, Armand in 1891, Marguerite in 1893 and André in 1896. During the 1890s, his painting became more subjective. Its very expressive colors thus anticipate the Fauvists. In 1891, he won two prizes, one of 100,000 gold francs6 and another of 500,000, at the National Lottery, which allowed him to devote himself entirely to painting. From 1893, he regularly rents a house in Crozant where he frequents the painters of the Crozant School, in the vicinity of Fresselines, where the poet Maurice Rollinat lives. Drawing and painting according to the motif, he is always attracted to water. From the banks of the Creuse, he observes the animation of the river, the bridges and the Chamils. Armand Guillaumin also made many trips to Auvergne and brought back many landscapes, in particular views of Pontgibaud, Saint-Sauves and Saint Julien des Chazes. At the start of the twentieth century, Armand Guillaumin oriented his work towards a tighter style, a more lively, almost violent palette, which, from 1901, excited the young Othon Friesz, who declared himself dazzled by the purples, ochres and violets. He often goes to the Côte d'Azur in Agay where he creates, alongside the painter Victor-Ferdinand Bourgeois, seascapes and mountain views, the Esterel massif and the snow-capped Alps. Armand Guillaumin then retired to the Creuse. He died on June 26, 1927 in Orly, leaving an important work from which emerged paintings of the Impressionist period, then of Fawn inspiration.