Early Life and Career
Jean Baptiste Armand Guillaumin, a French impressionist painter and lithographer, was born on February 16, 1841, in Paris. He worked at his uncle's lingerie shop while attending evening drawing lessons. This early exposure to art led him to study at the Académie Suisse in 1861, where he met
Paul Cézanne and
Camille Pissarro, with whom he maintained lifelong friendships.
Rise to Prominence
Guillaumin participated in six of the eight Impressionist exhibitions: 1874, 1877, 1880, 1881, 1882, and 1886. His assured brushstroke and use of bold colors earned him the title of "furious colorist" by critic Félix Fénéon in 1886. By the 1890s, his palette had grown even bolder, less faithful to nature.
- Noted for their intense colors, Guillaumin's paintings are represented in major museums around the world, including Musée d’Orsay (48 works) and Petit Palais (91 works) in Paris.
- His landscapes of Paris, the Creuse département, and the area around Les Adrets-de-l'Estérel near the Mediterranean coast in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of France are highly acclaimed.
- Guillaumin was called the leader of the École de Crozant, a diverse group of painters who came to depict the landscape in the region of the Creuse around the village of Crozant.
Full-time Painter and Legacy
In 1886, Guillaumin became a friend of
Vincent van Gogh, whose brother, Theo, exhibited and sold some of his works. After winning 100,000 francs in the state lottery in 1891, Guillaumin was finally able to quit his government job and concentrate on painting full-time.
Key Works:
Death and Remembrance
Armand Guillaumin died on June 26, 1927, in Orly, Val-de-Marne, just south of Paris. His legacy as a pioneer of Impressionism endures, with his works widely regarded for their intense colors and bold brushstrokes.
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