Victor Vignon (1847-1909) "Après-midi d’automne"

Born in 1847, Victor Vignon was a pupil of France's greatest naturalist, Camille Corot. Like his master, he was a plein-air painter. A landscape painter still little known to the general public, Victor Vignon was nevertheless a full-fledged member of the Impressionist movement, of which he can be considered one of the heralds. As early as 1870, he was painting verdant landscapes of the Ile-de-France region. Along with Paul Cézanne, Armand Guillaumin, Auguste Renoir and Camille Pissaro, Vignon worked at Auvers-sur-Oise from 1874 to 1876. He took part in the last four Impressionist exhibitions and received a great deal of support, notably from Auguste Renoir, who recommended him to Durand-Ruel, and to Théo Van Gogh, who bought his painting "Jeune fille dans les vignes" in 1883. Unfortunately, Vignon's not very extroverted personality and simple, rustic character, did not earn him the critical acclaim he deserved. He retired to the countryside to paint smaller, more restrained works than his friends.

Victor Vignon's painting is made up of a profusion of small, amalgamated brushstrokes. His tight, colorful style is a link between the naturalists of the Barbizon School and the Impressionists. The Louvre and Reims museums have acquired several of his works, which rank among the finest paintings of this movement.

Our painting is a rare work on the market, brilliant and warmly colored. With the exception of a few masterpieces preserved in museums, Victor Vignon's paintings are often based on a chiselled design, with subtle but not very luminous colors. In this work, Vignon abandons his cloud-heavy skies for a while, to depict a sunny end to the day. The brushstrokes are worked, impressionistic and vividly colored. The sun's rays illuminate the magnificent autumn colors, while the path, already in shadow, leads the viewer's eye towards the village, where the roofs catch the last rays. The plunging composition enhances the perspective, with admirably-treated faraway scenes that continue with a sky of varying shades of yellow, pink and blue.
Condition Report : Excellent, original canvas

Museums where works by Victor Vignon can be found :
Musée de l'Impressionnisme in Paris, Musée d'Orsay, Musée Bonnat-Helleu in Bayonne, Musée des beaux-arts in Reims, Musée Faure in Aix-les-Bains, Baltimore Museum of Art, Musée d'art moderne André Malraux in Le Havre, ...