AN APPRECIATION: Victor Vignon Victor Vignon can be characterized as the unknown Impressionist. He participated in half of the Impressionist Exhibitions and was part of the Impressionist circle. Serious collectors who collected the works of the Impressionists purchased Vignon's works. However, he never achieved the notoriety of his colleagues.
Career Information about Vignon's early life is rather sparse. He was born into a prosperous family in 1847 in Villers-Cotterêts, France. His father was a spice merchant. His mother is sometimes identified as the sculptor Marie-Noémi Cadiot but the majority view is that his mother was Catherine Bouchard. Around 1869, Vignon was a pupil of Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot. He later worked with Adolphe-Félix Cals. His early style was rooted in the Barbizon School. By the 1870s, Vignon was living and working in the area between the Seine and Oise rivers. Also living in this area was Camille Pissarro with whom Vignon became friends. Pissarro's presence attracted other Impressionist artists including Armuad Guillaumin and Paul Cezanne. Vignon, who loved to paint outdoors, often when with them on painting exhibitions. Gradually, Vignon's style became more and more Impressionistic. Indeed, it is sometimes hard to tell which artist painted a work done during this period. Vignon participated in the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Impressionist Exhibitions. The Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Exhibitions were chiefly organized by Edgar Degas and he invited a large number of artists to participate who were not working in the Impressionist style. However, the Seventh Exhibition was a reaction against Degas' management of the exhibitions and it was limited to a small number of true Impressionists including Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Berthe Morisot, Gustave Caillebotte, Armand Guillaumin, Alfred Sisley, Paul Gauguin and, of course, Pissarro. The fact that Vignon was included in that exhibition endorses his credentials as an Impressionist. This is not to say that Vignon was welcomed to the Seventh Exhibition without objection. Monet reportedly argued that Vignon's use of sharp outlines was not Impressionistic. Eugene Manet wrote to his wife Berthe Morisot criticizing Vignon's works as mediocre. Still, Vignon endeared himself to the Impressionist circle. In 1903, when Vignon was beset by both financial and health problems, Julie Manet, Berthe Morisot's daughter, campaigned for an exhibition to benefit Vignon. Renoir and the art dealer Paul Durant-Ruel helped organize it and Monet, Pissarro and other members of the circle contributed works. Following his death, a similar exhibition was held to benefit Vignon's widow. Vignon was also friends with the art dealer Theo Van Gogh and through him, he became friends with his brother Vincent. Dr. Paul Gachet, who lived is the Oise valley and was an early collector of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art, purchased some of Vignon's works. In 1894, a one-man show of Vignon's works was held at the Georges Petit Gallery in Paris. An enthusiastic collector, Dr Georges Viau, helped to get one of Vignon's paintings shown at the Universal Exhibition of 1900 in Paris. However, by this time, Vignon's health had deteriorated. He had a heart condition and from the late 1880s, serious vision problems. Vignon died in 1909 at Meulan. Analysis Most of Vignon's works prior to the 1870s are in the style of the Barbizon School. However, following his association with Pissarro, his works take on the brighter colors of the Impressionist palette. Vignon's paintings tend to be small in size. He focused primarily on landscapes but he also did still-lifes. The quality of Vignon's works is somewhat inconsistent. Some of his landscapes are rather lifeless depictions of rural villages in the countryside. However, they are interspersed with works with a spark that shows that he was worthy of being in the Impressionist circle. See our profiles of these other Impressionists and members of their circle.
Frederic Bazille Eugene Boudin Marie Bracquemond Gustave Caillebotte Mary Cassatt Paul Cezanne Edgar Degas Henri Fantin-Latour Eva Gonzales Paul Gauguin Armand Guillaumin Edouard Manet Claude Monet (Part I The Early Years) Claude Monet (Part II High Impressionism) Claude Monet (Part III The Giverny Years) Berthe Morisot Camille Pissarro Pierre Auguste Renoir Alfred Sisley Suzanne Valadon |
Above: "Entrance to a Village"
Below: "Village in Winter." 
Above: In addition to landscapes, Vignon painted still-lifes. He was also an engraver.
Above: "Mother and Child".
Below: "Hamlet in Winter". 
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Artist appreciation - Victor Vignon