GUILLAUMIN, Armand

At this phase of his artistic career, Guillaumin adhered to older solutions to the problem of spatial and surface qualities and paint application than did the Impressionists.

This painting was shown at the third Impressionist exhibition in Paris in 1877. It is one of the few figure paintings by Guillaumin, who was predominantly a landscape painter. In the motif of the reclining nude, Guillaumin was certainly influenced by Manet’s Olympia. The subject refers back to Renaissance painting, to the representations of Venus by Titian, Giorgione and other masters.

This still-life depicts flowers, faience, and books.

Guillaumin painted with Pissarro. He worked night shifts in order to paint by day. From Pissarro he took the structure and composition of street views with figures and the creation of spatial depth by the use of twisted lanes. But he also had a somewhat romantically coloured view of modern industry of his own. In the present work we see smoke billowing from factory chimneys in the Paris suburb of Ivry, like triumphant banners fluttering against a ruddy golden evening sky.

Guillaumin was the leader of the �cole de Crozant, a diverse group of artists who painted the landscapes of the river Creuse around the village of Crozant in central France.

The painting is signed Guillaumin lower left.

Noted for their intense colours, Guillamin’s paintings are represented in major museums around the world. He is best remembered for his views of Paris, the Creuse d�partement, and the area around Les Adrets-de-l’Est�rel in Provence.

The painting is signed Guillaumin lower left.

Guillaumin lived long, and on his travels around France and its coasts he painted characteristically Impressionist motifs. He used a rather violent, brusque brush-stroke that already, in the 1890s, anticipated Fauvism. His colours were vigorously contrasted and luminous, and sometimes became decoratively patterned.