Henri Vouillemont - The Dandy

Henri Vouillemont (Troyes 1878 – Sens 1911)
Oil on canvas
80 x 41.5 cm
Signed lower right: H Vouillemont
Discovering a painting by Henri Vouillemont is a stroke of luck, as his works are extremely rare! In addition to this one and La femme lisant (fig.1), we have identified only two others preserved in the Musée de Troyes.
Little is known about the artist himself. He stayed in Paris from 1898 to 1903 to follow Jean-Léon Gérome's lessons at the École des Beaux-Arts. Back in Troyes in 1907, he exhibited a painting entitled Chrysantèmes at the Salon de la Société artistique de l'Aube. Purchased by the State, it was placed in the local museum.
From 1909 onwards, he was a teacher at the Troyes School of Drawing's senior drawing classes for boys. In addition to his regional roots and his untimely death in 1911, his preferred subjects may explain why we know so little about the work of an artist that even the Bénézit does not seem to know.