Victor Vignon 1847-1909

A student of Camille Corot and advised by Adolphe-Félix Cals, Victor Vignon first worked in Clamart, then Bougival, and later in La Celle-Saint-Cloud, where he painted Saulaie à Bougival (1877), Le Chemin de la plaine à Bougival, and La Route de la Jonchère à La Celle-Saint-Cloud. He later moved to Pontoise and then to Jouy-le-Comte. Around 1878–1880, he was in Auvers-sur-Oise alongside Camille Pissarro, Armand Guillaumin, and Paul Cézanne, painting subjects similar to theirs, including Chemin de Chaponval (1881), La Côte Saint-Nicolas à Auvers (1882), and Masures à Auvers (1883).

Between 1880 and 1886, he exhibited at the Impressionist painters’ exhibitions alongside artists such as Mary Cassatt, Degas, Forain, Gauguin, Guillaumin, Berthe Morisot, Pissarro, Raffaëlli, Rouart, and Zandomeneghi.

Vignon maintained close connections with Théo and Vincent van Gogh, Dr. Paul Gachet, Auguste Renoir, Caillebotte, Monet, Degas, and Sisley.

In 1900, thanks to Dr. Viau, one of his paintings was shown at the Exposition Universelle. In 1903, an exhibition was organized to support him. Auguste Renoir advised Durand-Ruel to select works from Vignon’s smaller pieces. In 1910, Julie Manet-Rouart, Berthe Morisot’s daughter, obtained a painting from Renoir for a sale organized to benefit Madame Vignon.

Among the major collectors who owned Victor Vignon’s works were Georges Viau, whose collection was dispersed in 1907 and 1909; M. F. Stumpf, whose collection dispersal in 1906 included about fifteen of Vignon’s paintings; and Roger Marx, who owned three Vignon works. Today, most of Victor Vignon’s paintings are held in private collections, with only a few in public collections.