Victor Vignon

Victor Vignon

Victor Vignon with Camille Pissarro at Auvers-sur-Oise

Victor Vignon with Camille Pissarro
at Auvers-sur-Oise
Born 25 December 1847
Villers-Cotterêts
Died 15 March 1909 (aged 61)
Meulan
Occupation French Impressionist landscape painter and graphic artist

Victor Alfred Paul Vignon (25 December 1847, Villers-Cotterêts - 15 March 1909, Meulan) was a French Impressionist landscape painter and graphic artist.

Biography

His mother was Marie-Noémi Cadiot, a sculptor who worked under the name "Claude Vignon" [1] (after a character from the novel Béatrix by Balzac). When he was born, she was the proprietor of a hotel which was decorated by Puvis de Chavannes in the 1850s, so he had an early introduction to art. He studied with Camille Corot and Adolphe-Félix Cals.[2] Originally, he worked in the Val-d'Oise, supplemented with trips to Clamart, Bougival, and La Celle-Saint-Cloud. In the 1870s, he associated with Camille Pissarro and his circle in Auvers-sur-Oise.[2]

In 1880, he moved to Nesles-la-Vallée then, a short time later, settled in L'Isle-Adam, where he made friends with Vincent Van Gogh and Dr. Paul Gachet became one of his best customers.[2] While there, he participated in the fifth, sixth and seventh Impressionist Exhibitions and was criticized by Claude Monet, who believed that his sharp outlines were not truly impressionistic. This criticism was echoed in the 1890s by the critics Roger Marx and Félix Fénéon, who decided that many of his works had more resemblance to the old Dutch Masters.[1]

The barrage of criticism had its effect and his work was rejected for several exhibitions, including the Salon. Finally, Dr. Georges Viau, an oral surgeon who was an avid art collector, helped him to get his works displayed at the Exposition Universelle in 1900. Three years later, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Paul Durand-Ruel helped organize a retrospective of his work. After his death, Renoir and Julie Manet-Rouart (the daughter of Berthe Morisot) organized another exhibition.[1]

Selected paintings

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Sophie Monneret, L'Impressionnisme et son époque, vol. 2, t. I, ISBN 2-221-05412-1 and vol. 2, t. II, ISBN 2-221-05413-X, Robert Laffont, 1987.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Brief biography @ Impressionisme.

Further reading

External links

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