Jean-Baptiste Armand Guillaumin - Impressionist Painter

Artist Jean-Baptiste Armand Guillaumin was born on February 16, 1841 in Paris, France. He worked as a sales clerk in his uncle’s lingerie shop and studied sculpture with Caillouet. He also befriended art collector Eugene Muret. In 1861, after leaving the shop when his family would not support his artistic dreams, he attended the Academie Suisse where he met fellow artists Cezanne and Pissarro.

Guillaumin’s first showing was in 1863 at the first Salon de Refuses exhibition. He was mostly known for his landscapes. Unlike some of his fellow artists, Guillaumin had to take jobs to support himself and did not have the luxury of being able to paint full-time.

He became a friend and mentor to Vincent Van Gogh and also befriended Van Gogh’s brother, Theo. In 1886, Guillaumin was married. There are several paintings of Madame Guillaumin in his body of work.

In 1891, Guillaumin won the Loterie Nationale of France, a prize of 100,000 Francs, and never had to worry about money again. He began painting what he wanted to without worrying if he could sell it or not.

Jean-Baptiste Armand Guillaumin died on June 26, 1927.

Guillaumin lived a longer life than most of his contemporaries, he lived long enough to see the Impressionist movement and it’s artists being fully accepted by the art world and to be recognized himself as one of the greatest of that group. However, today the name of Guillaumin is not as well known as Cezanne and Pissarro.