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Biography |
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Little is known of Antoine Guillemet’s childhood except that he was from an established family which allowed him the chance to develop his distinctive style without commercial constraints. |
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Friends with Manet, Berthe Morisot, Cezanne, Monet and Pissarro, he had strong links with the Impressionists, though the influence of artists such as Corot, Oudinot and in particular Daubigny are visible in his work. He once confided to Pissarro that “after Corot, Daubigny, Jongkind, there is nothing left to do”. |
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He exhibited in the Salon in 1865 for the first time at the age of 24. By then he was already linked to the Impressionist group, having met Pissarro and Cezanne at the Academie Suisse and he was first person to show Cezanne’s work to Manet. They remained close friends. Zola portrayed him as Planchet in his Une Farce ou Bohème en villégiature from his Contes et nouvelles. |
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His work was refused in the 1866 Salon (alongside Cezanne, Solari and Renoir) and we find him painting in Gloton, Vallee de la Seine, at this time. He spent the autumn of that year painting in Aix alongside Cezanne. |
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The following year his work was again refused. He began to work in Honfleur where he encountered Monet. He is painted by Manet in ‘Le Balcon’ with the violinist Fanny Claus and good friend Berthe Morisot. |
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Guillemet appears to have travelled to England with Monet in 1871 though from this moment on he began exhibiting regularly at the Salon and took a different path to his Impressionist friends. In 1880, he became a member of the jury for the Salon. Work by his friend Monet was admitted for the first time that year, probably in large part due to his influence. |
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Frequent dinners at the Vieux Montmartre and Bon Bock kept him in close contact with Zola, Duranty, Maupassant and Huysmans. He continued working in the same locations as these artists - with Cezanne in Bercy, Charenton, Monet in Villerville, Sisley in Fontainebleau. It was most probably down to Guillemet that Cezanne was accepted by the Salon and that Manet won a second medal. He was appointed Officer de la Legion d’Honneur in 1896 and continued to exhibit at the Salon regularly until his death in 1918. |
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The artist’s oeuvre has been in numerous exhibitions and is in many public collections amongst which the Musée d’Orsay and the Petit Palais in Paris, Musée des Beaux Arts, Bordeaux, Musée des Beaux Arts, Nantes and the Musée de Carcasonne. |
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