Biographie

1841–1927

Born in Paris, Armand Guil­lau­min spent a large part of his child­hood in mod­est con­di­tions in the town of Moulins, locat­ed in the cen­tre of France. Aged six­teen, Guil­lau­min was sent to Paris to help out at his uncle’s com­mer­cial enter­prise. He took some draw­ing cours­es before start­ing a job at the Orléans Rail­way Com­pa­ny and attend­ing the ‘Académie Suisse’ and its life-mod­el class­es, which had attract­ed many Impres­sion­ist stu­dents. Here he encoun­tered Camille Pis­sar­ro and Paul Cézanne whom he befriend­ed. In 1873, Cézanne made a por­trait of him enti­tled ‘Guil­lau­min au Pen­du’ (1873).

As an adher­ent of Impres­sion­ism, Guil­lau­min exhib­it­ed at the ‘Salon des Refusés’ in 1863; he also took part in the first edi­tion of ‘l’Exposition des Impres­sion­nistes’ held in 1874 and reg­u­lar­ly con­tributed to this much debat­ed year­ly event until 1886.
Guil­lau­min joined his close friend Pis­sar­ro in Pon­toise dur­ing the ear­ly 1870s and opt­ed for a vivid colour palette to ren­der the beau­ty of the banks of the Seine in the Oise area, in Ivry-sur-Seine, Cla­mart and Charenton.

Dur­ing the 1890s Guillaumin’s intense palette announced his devel­op­ment towards Fau­vism, which char­ac­terised his work of the 20th Cen­tu­ry and would influ­ence the young Oth­on Friesz. From 1893 onwards, Guil­lau­min spent much time paint­ing the rur­al land­scape sur­round­ing the pic­turesque town of Crozant locat­ed in the Creuse area of Cen­tral France. As such, he became a lead­ing par­tic­i­pant of the so-called ‘École de Crozant’.
Guil­lau­min also trav­elled through Provence to vis­it his friend Paul Cézanne, and to Agay on the Mediter­ranean, where Albert Mar­quet lived and where Louis Val­tat and Hen­ri Lebasque often painted.

In short, two major styles char­ac­terise the abun­dant pro­duc­tion of Guil­lau­min; an Impres­sion­ism inspired peri­od was fol­lowed by a pro­to-Fauve peri­od. Guil­lau­min passed away in Paris in 1927.