Muleteer Returning to the Provencal Village By Paul Guigou (1834-1871)

Muleteer returning to the village Provençal oil painting on a canvas board by Paul Guigou (appraised by Jeanne Bonnici) dated 1868. Dimension 37/27 cm and 24cm/14cm for the view Biography: Paul Guigou was born in 1834 in Villars (Vaucluse) in a wealthy family of farmers and notaries. He goes to the college in Apt where his qualities do not go unnoticed by his drawing teacher. Paul Guigou was then a notary clerk in Marseille from 1854 to 1861. The paintings of Gustave Courbet, which he discovered at the Universal Exhibition of 1855, strongly influenced him during his entire period in Marseille. He also met Émile Loubon, who gave him access to the salons he organized as part of the Société des amis des arts de Marseille. In 1863, after Loubon's death, Paul Guigou left Marseille for Paris. He lived at 44 rue de la Tour-d'Auvergne. He frequented the Guerbois café, a meeting place for many future impressionist painters. He became friends with the southern painter Frédéric Bazille, Alfred Sisley and Claude Monet. However, his paintings remain essentially representations of a calm and peaceful Haute-Provence that he returns to every summer. His landscapes, very luminous, he frequently stages them in panoramas all in width which give an important part to a bright blue sky. His favorite subjects range from the garrigues of the Luberon to the banks of the Durance, from Plan-d'Orgon to Saint-Saturnin-lès-Apt, from the hills of Allauch to the Etang de Berre. His paintings were regularly exhibited from 1863 to 1870 at the Paris Salon. Having left the capital before the war and the Commune, Paul Guigou returned, hired by the Baroness of Rothschild as a drawing teacher, a position that would finally provide him with a stable income. He died suddenly on December 21, 1871 of a stroke. After his death, his work fell into oblivion for nearly thirty years: it was the Centennial Exhibition of 1900 that made it rediscovered. In the 20th century, a few exhibitions in Paris and Marseille made him better known. His paintings can be seen, among others, in France at the Musée d'Orsay and the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Marseille. The last exhibition of 118 of his paintings, watercolors and drawings took place from October 28, 2004 to February 26, 2005 at the Musée Marmottan-Monet in Paris (source: Wikipedia)

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