Although his life was cut short by the Franco-Prussian War, Paul-Camille Guigou succeeded in capturing the physical beauty of Provence in a series of limitless panoramas. Whether he was depicting the quiet fishing village of Martigues or the unique grasslands of the Camargues, Guigou’s lateral vistas present the variety of the southern French landscape with absolute geographic specificity. In the main, his brushwork is thin, as evidenced in Landscape in Martigues. The picture, relatively devoid of artistic gesture, is defined by the sparse use of paint, unlike the landscapes of many of his contemporaries. But in Landscape in Southern France, one of the last works completed just before his untimely death, Guigou’s handling of paint begins to loosen. His pigment becomes heavier and more material, anticipating the techniques of the Impressionists.
Details
- Artist Name: Paul-Camille Guigou (French, 1834-1871)
- Title: Landscape in Southern France
- Date: 1870
- Medium: Oil on panel
- Dimensions: 7-1/8 x 17-7/8 in. (18.1 x 45.4 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Art Foundation, from the Estate of Jennifer Jones Simon
- Accession Number: M.2010.1.188.P
- Copyright: © Norton Simon Art Foundation
Object Information
Marubeni-Iida Co.
(sale, London, Sotheby’s, 5 July 1973, lot 4, ill., as Paysage la Camargue, to);
H. Breny.
Private Collection, France.
[Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York, sold 5 January 1979 to];
Norton Simon (sale, New York, Christie’s, 29 May 1981, lot 32, as Landscape in Southern France, unsold and returned to);
Norton Simon (sale, New York, Sotheby’s, 27 May 1982, lot 27, as Landscape in Southern France, unsold and returned to);
Norton Simon, by bequest to;
Jennifer Jones Simon Art Trust, to;
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
Images of the Landscape, Barbizon and Impressionist Paintings from the Permanent Collection
- Norton Simon Museum, 1987-07-02 to 1989-10-29
- Lamort de Gail, Sylvie, Paul Guigou: Catalogue raisonné, 1989, p. 136
- Brettell, Richard R. and Stephen F. Eisenman, Nineteenth-Century Art in the Norton Simon Museum, volume 1, 2006,
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. 1566 p. 421
Image reproduction permission may be granted for scholarly or arts related commercial use. All image requests, regardless of their intended purpose, should be submitted via the reproduction request form.
Images may be protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights. Additional permission may be required.
Approved requests for the reproduction of an image will receive a contract detailing all fees and conditions of use of the image. Upon receipt of both the signed contract and full payment, the Office of Rights and Reproductions will provide the image. A complimentary copy of the published material must be provided to the Norton Simon Museum.