Lucien Mignon

Lucien Mignon was born at Chateau-Gontier in Mayenne on 13th September 1865. He commenced his studies at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Angers before entering the Beaux-Arts in Paris where he studied at Gérôme’s atelier. While still quite young he established a close and lasting friendship with Renoir, and for many years he lived at Cagnes-sur-Mer where he lived side by side with the great Impressionist for much of the latter’s “Ingresque” period. Mignon’s expressed desire was to “Allier la couleur des Impressionnistes au dessin d’Ingres”, although he seems to have pursued this ambitious goal in his figure paintings alone and he soon reconciled himself to the impossibility of ever achieving it. His still life paintings have a rare charm, and in colouring and technique strongly recall the best works of Renoir. Mignon seems to have started exhibiting fairly late in life, making his debut at both the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1910, and in 1920 he received the Prix Berton. He died in Paris on 13th March 1944. Examples of his works are in the Luxembourg and the Ministry of Public Works in Paris, while the museum of Laval possesses three of his works and Angers hone. The still life in the last named museum, which forms almost an exact pair to our example, is dated 1898 and was presented to the museum as a gift of the state in 1909.