Henri Guinier (1867-1927) Ophélie, Circa 1900

Henri Guinier (1867-1927)
Ophélie, circa 1900
Pastel on paper mounted on canvas
46 x 38 cm
63 x 55 cm with frame
Signed lower left
Exhibited at the International Fine Arts Fair in Montecarlo under number 117

Painter of allegorical subjects, genre scenes, nudes, portraits, landscapes, watercolourist, pastellist, designer. It is on the advice of his father that he entered the School of Arts and Crafts of Châlons-sur-Marne from which he graduated as an engineer in 1886. Then passionate about painting, he followed the courses of Jules Lefebvre and Benjamin- Constant. His career was rapid and brilliant: in 1896, he obtained the Prix de Rome, in 1893, an honorable mention; third class medals in 1896, second class in 1898. He also received in 1898 a travel grant and in 1900 a silver medal at the World's Fair, as well as in 1907 the Henner Prize. He was a founding member of the Salon d'Automne and a regular exhibitor at the Salons des Artistes Français from the early 1890s until his death. He discovered Brittany in 1902, during a stay in Bréhat. In Paris, he befriended the painter Le Gout-Gérard, who praised him the picturesque site of Concarneau, then very frequented by painters from all over the world. More than landscapes and seascapes, Guinier, a portrait painter, in Brittany attached himself to the human figure, observed in the activities of daily life. Cornouaille Finistérienne but also Le-Faouët were the places of inspiration for a large number of his paintings, pastels and watercolors, as evidenced by his annual submissions to the Salons.