Guignard, Alexandre Gaston (1848–1922)

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Related biographies: Desvarreux-Larpenteur, James (1847–1937) · Peraire, Paul Emmanuel (1829–1893)

Browse the collection: French artists · Animal paintings · Landscape paintings

Biography

From the Paris bar to the sheepfold

Alexandre Gaston Guignard, known as Gaston Guignard, came to painting the long way round. Born in Bordeaux on 8 March 1848, the son of Jean Baptiste Eugene Guignard, he first studied law and was admitted to the Paris bar. The Franco-Prussian War interrupted that career: in 1870 he served in a dragoon regiment, and when the war ended he abandoned the law for good and entered the studio of the painter Jules-Jean Ferry, completing his training under Henri Gervex and Ferdinand Humbert.

Like Peraire the stockbroker and Cals the engraver's apprentice, Guignard belongs to that appealing category of nineteenth-century French painters who chose art against the grain of their upbringing, and then worked at it with the discipline of a professional.

Salons, medals and the Societe Nationale

Guignard made his Salon debut in 1874 and exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Francais until 1889. Official recognition came steadily: a medal at the International Exhibition of 1883, then a silver medal at the Exposition Universelle of 1889 in Paris for Au verger, painted in 1884. In 1891 the French state named him chevalier of the Legion d'honneur.

He was one of the founders and elected delegates of the new Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts, the breakaway salon of 1890 led by Meissonier and Puvis de Chavannes, where he showed landscapes of his native Gironde and of his travels. He also exhibited with the Salon de la Societe des Pastellistes. Ever the pioneer, he became one of the first French painters to court the South American market, with exhibitions in Buenos Aires in 1906 and Rio de Janeiro in 1908.

Alexandre Gaston Guignard, Sheep in a Haystack Landscape, signed oil on canvas, 19th century. GalerieClub Fine Art.

Painter of flocks and open country

Guignard painted portraits and military scenes, but his heart was in the countryside: flocks of sheep, cattle in pasture, shepherds, hunting scenes, and the landscapes of the Gironde, all handled in the warm, atmospheric manner of the Barbizon-descended Realists. Animals hold a central place even in his military subjects. Our signed canvas of sheep gathered by haystacks, which carries the wax stamp of the Paris colour merchant Alexis Ottoz on the reverse, is a textbook example of his rural repertoire, and we discuss the haystack tradition it belongs to in our guide to Haystacks in French Painting.

A noted fencer, Guignard presided over the fencing salle of the Cercle Volney in Paris, the artists' club of which he was a fixture. He died at his home on the rue Verniquet in Paris in October 1922. His paintings are typically signed "Gaston Guignard", most often in a lower corner.

Legacy

Guignard is recorded in the Benezit dictionary, the authority files of the Bibliotheque nationale de France, and the artist repertory of the musee d'Orsay, which documents his Salon career. His work appears regularly at auction in France and internationally, including in South America, a legacy of those pioneering exhibitions of 1906 and 1908. For collectors of pastoral painting, a signed Guignard offers a medal-winning Salon animalier at prices that remain distinctly accessible. Every work offered by GalerieClub Fine Art ships free to the United States and Canada.

Timeline

1848 Born 8 March in Bordeaux. First studies law and joins the Paris bar.

1870 Serves in a dragoon regiment during the Franco-Prussian War, then turns to painting under Jules-Jean Ferry, Henri Gervex and Ferdinand Humbert.

1874 Salon debut. Exhibits at the Salon des Artistes Francais until 1889.

1883 Medal at the International Exhibition.

1889 Silver medal at the Exposition Universelle in Paris for Au verger.

1890 Founding member and elected delegate of the Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts.

1891 Named chevalier of the Legion d'honneur.

1906–1908 Among the first French painters to exhibit in South America, in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro.

1922 Dies in Paris in October, at his home on the rue Verniquet.

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