Written by Allie Gloe, Curatorial Intern
Paul Camille Guigou (French, 1834 – 1871), L'Entrée de la Riviere à Lourmarin (Mouth of the Lourmarin River), c. 1867, oil on canvas, 37 ¾ x 56 ¼ in., Purchased with funds from the Morton R. Hirschberg Bequest, AP.1989.16.1.
French landscape painter Paul Guigou studied painting in Apt and Marseille in his younger years and was later influenced by the Barbizon School and Gustave Courbet after visiting Paris in 1859 when he was just twenty-five. Two years later, he began to paint full-time. Guigou painted hundreds of landscapes filled with idealistic scenery and great detail. In Mouth of the Lourmarin River, Guigou uses earthy tones of green, brown and grey with sparks of color in flowers and figures. Five small sigures stand in the center of the painting and allow the viewer to comprehend the sense of scale in nature. A sixth figure stands alone on a grassy hill above the central figures and tends to his sheep.
