Victor Vignon

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. The Doctor Pauly art collector helped him too. 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

Mother and Child
Taking a Walk

Still-life with Oranges

Group of Houses

Village in Spring

References

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.

Brief biography @ Impressionisme.