Works by Armand Guillaumin are held in museums and private collections in countries around the world. Many are in France, as one might expect, but they can also be found in several other European nations, in the Americas, and in Asia.
On this page, you’ll find, first of all, a list of public institutions that have Guillaumins in their collections along with images of some of the works they hold. Further down, you’ll see the names of many of the notable collectors who have owned works by Guillaumin over the past century and a half with some details about their collections. Near the bottom of the page are some insights for those interested in acquiring works by the artist today.
Museums
France
Musée d’Orsay in Paris has 48 works in its collection with paintings and pastels among them. The circa 1875 oil, La Place Valhubert, exhibited at the fifth Impressionist show in 1880, is one:
Petit Palais in Paris is the home of 91 drawings, pastels and paintings, including Artiste à son chevalet from 1872:
Musée Carnavalet and Musée d’Art moderne de Paris each has one Guillaumin in their collection.
Musée Marmottan-Monet, below, also in Paris, has six works: a drawing, and five oils.
Other French Museums hold works by Guillaumin in their collections. These include: Musée d’Art Roger Quilliot in Clermont-Ferrand and MuMa (Musée d’art moderne André Malraux) in Le Havre plus at least eleven other regional museums. The circa 1895 oil, Paysage de neige à Crozant, can be seen at MuMa:
United Kingdom
The British Museum owns three prints and two books of prints.
Tate Britain has one painting, Moret-sur-Loing, from 1902:
The Birmingham Museums Trust has one and Judges’ Lodgings in Lancaster has two paintings.
The Glasgow Museums Resource Centre also has two paintings, while The National Trust for Scotland, Brodie Castle and The Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums have one each, including, at Aberdeen, this 1893 view of Les pommiers à Damiette:
Germany
Hamburger Kunsthalle, in Hamburg, is the home of the well-known The Seine at Bercy plus the copy painted by Paul Cézanne, which hangs next to it. See The Artist page for images of both.
Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne has a fine collection of Impressionist paintings, including several by Guillaumin.
Neue Pinakothek in Munich has one painting, a bold circa 1895 landscape:
Netherlands
The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam is home to two paintings that once belonged to Vincent’s brother, Theo. One is a self-portrait from 1878 and the other is a portrait of a young woman, both of which Vincent greatly admired. See the Opening Remarks and Colleagues pages for images.
Russia
The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg has on view one painting, The Seine, originally owned by the famed collector Sergei Shchukin and confiscated after the 1917 revolution. You can see the image at the top of The Artist page.
Norway
The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo has two oils: a circa 1876 landscape and a circa 1880 scene with two figures:
Spain
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museo Nacional in Madrid holds three paintings including the circa 1880 The Bridge of the Archbishop and the Apse of Notre-Dame:
Finland
The Finnish National Gallery has one small coloured pencil on paper:
U.S.A.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is home to three oil paintings, including The Bouchardon Mill, circa 1898:
The Art Institute of Chicago also holds three paintings in its collection. The best-known is the 1874 The Arcueil Aqueduct at Sceaux Railroad Crossing:
The National Gallery of Art in Washington DC has on view the 1875 oil, The Bridge of Louis Philippe, from the magnificent Chester Dale Collection (see The Artist page) along with a lithograph in its holdings.
The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco has four works: an oil, an etching, a lithograph and an 1894 chalk and pastel portrait of the artist’s son, which is on display in the museum’s Legion of Honor:
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston holds a 1903 view of Crozant in oil and has on display an 1871 canvas, View of the Seine, Paris:
The Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena California owns an 1874 oil, The Seine at Charenton.
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston has two works: an etching and a canvas, Bridge in the Mountains, from 1889:
The Cleveland Museum of Art has five works in its collection: one etching and five oil paintings, including the circa 1895 Banks of the Marne at Charenton:
The Detroit Institute of Art holds one oil painting in its collection, a portrait of a schoolboy in uniform.
The Seattle Art Museum has an 1889 painting of haystacks plus, on view, a circa 1885 canvas entitled Essence of Spring, Chevreuse Valley:
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City is home to three paintings (see images of two of them on the Exhibitions page), including Moret-sur-Loing, Evening Effect from 1896:
The Columbia Museum of Art in Columbia South Carolina is in possession of one painting from 1885, Ferry Boat:
The Davis Museum at Wellesley College in Wellesley, MA has two oils in its collection.
The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, OK owns a still-life painting.
The Minneapolis Institute of Art has two works: a 1917 pastel on paper and a circa 1920 oil, Le Jardin Provincial:
The Indianapolis Museum of Art is the home of two paintings: Agay- Les Roches Rouges and The Quai d’Austerlitz, which is also on view:
Canada
The National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa has in its collection one etching executed in 1873 .
The Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto holds one painting, Le Trayas, temps gris, from 1907:
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is home to three oils including the 1881 Road and Railway:
The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria in Victoria, B.C. owns one oil, a scene of Crozant in autumn.
Australia
The National Gallery of Australia in Canberra has two lithographs.
The Queensland Gallery of Modern Art owns one lithograph, an 1896 portrait of the artist’s son, André.
Israel
The Israel Museum in Jerusalem holds two paintings in its collection. An image of one can be found on The Artist page. The other is the circa 1890 River Scene:
Japan
The Ohara Museum of Art in Kurashiki, Japan has a circa 1890-95 Self-Portrait:
The Matsuoka Museum of Art in Tokyo owns an 1893 canvas, The Rocks of Agay.
Venezuela and Brazil
The Museo de Bellas Artes in Caracas and The Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Rio de Janeiro both have paintings in their collections.
Private Collections
The 1924 monograph on Guillaumin by Édouard Des Courières contains a list of dozens of French private collections of works by the artist. Most collectors owned between ten and twenty paintings and pastels, some many more. Here are the names of some of those collectors, a few details on their collections, as well as others in France, Japan, Russia and the United States:
Count Armand Doria had a magnificent collection of Impressionist and other works, including 12 oils from the 1870s and 1880s by Guillaumin. The circa 1882 The Reader was part of his collection:
Eugène Murer was Guillaumin’s boyhood friend who amassed an impressive collection of Impressionist works, including 22 by Guillaumin.
Antonin Personnaz, another collector who became a friend of the artist, donated many of his Guillaumins to the Musée d’Orsay. He once owned 37 paintings, dating from 1875 to 1908, and two pastels. Verger à Miregaudon, dated 1892, was part of his collection:
Olivier Sen of Le Havre also had a large collection of Impressionist and later works. By 1924, he owned six oils plus 31 pastels by Guillaumin. See one canvas that’s in the MuMa collection, above under ‘France’.
Dr. Paul Gachet, the friend of Guillaumin, Cézanne and Pissarro, had at least 5 paintings in his collection, some of which are in the Musée d’Orsay. La Seine, from 1873, is now in a private collection:
Eugène Blot was an art dealer who owned a gallery in Paris but was also a collector; he had 12 paintings in his personal collection.
Albert Bonabeau ran a public works company specializing in maritime and river works and by 1924 owned 7 Guillaumin paintings. Among these, unsurprisingly, was a scene of the working river, Quai de Bercy, circa 1880:
Édouard Des Courières, who wrote the first book on Guillaumin, owned 8 paintings, all dated 1918 or later.
Th. Gaillard had 25 oils and 8 pastels in his collection, including this view at Agay, circa 1900:
Other notable collectors include:
Théodore Duret, journalist, author and critic, was one of the first to champion impressionism.
Gustave Geffroy, another early supporter of impressionism, was a close friend of Monet.
Auguste Pellerin was also a major collector of Manet, Cezanne and Matisse. He once owned the above portrait of Gustave Geffroy.
Louis Vauxcelles, an important and influential critic best-known for coining the term, Fauve, and being the first to write of Georges Braque’s ‘cubes’ greatly admired Guillaumin’s art.
Georges Lecomte was a celebrated writer who produced a study on Guillaumin in 1926 for Bernheim-Jeune.
Tadamasa Hayashi, “an almost-daily intimate” of Guillaumin (according to writer Charles Borgmeyer), traded Japanese colour prints for 20 canvases over the years. The 165-lot Hayashi Sale in New York in 1913 featured works by Monet, Degas, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, and a dozen by Guillaumin.
Sergei Shchukin amassed an impressive collection of Impressionist and later works, much of which is now in Russian public collections, including The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.
Chester Dale donated hundreds of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masterpieces to The National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.
Paul Mellon was an American philanthropist who donated over 1,000 masterworks by the Impressionists and others to The National Gallery of Art.
Collecting Today
The art of Armand Guillaumin is held in major museum and private collections around the world and has been for well over 100 years. He’s part of an elite group of artists who played a critically important role in the history of art. And yet it’s still possible to acquire artwork by him at what many would argue is a remarkably reasonable price, even in terms of today’s art market. Does that make a Guillaumin a good investment? Possibly, but an artwork should never be purchased as an investment; it really should be acquired for aesthetic reasons. Still, most works of art do increase in value over time and this has certainly been true of works by Armand Guillaumin, which have steadily risen in price over the last several decades.
This raises the question: what is a reasonable price for a work of art? It’s relative. While paintings by Monet or Cézanne regularly sell for millions of dollars, a small canvas by Guillaumin can sell for as little as USD12,000. A more typical selling price for a very nice painting, however, is in the $20,000 to $100,000 range, although dozens of his paintings have sold for over $100,000 in the last three decades. A median price at auction is around $50,000. The all-time record for a Guillaumin painting at auction was set at Christie’s in Paris in 2014 and was for a very large, gorgeous tableau of Damiette painted in 1885:
When it comes to works on paper, such as pastels, watercolours and drawings, these are much more affordable. Guillaumin pastels, though highly-regarded and usually large-format, often sell in the $4,000 to $12,000 range. Watercolours can be had for $2,000 to $4,000 and drawings, either in pencil or charcoal, can sell for between $750 and $2,000. Of course, various factors affect the value: condition, provenance, exhibition history, subject, date of creation, etc.
Buyers have essentially two options to acquire a work by Armand Guillaumin: public art auctions and private art dealers. As is the case with all collectible items, auctions can offer an opportunity to acquire a piece for a great price or to substantially overpay. It depends on the piece and who else wants it. From all the publicly available data, it appears that the prices for works by Guillaumin are considerably lower at auction than through dealers. In fact, some art dealers have been known to purchase Guillaumins at auction and then a few months (or even weeks) later offer them for sale at substantial markups.
Auction Houses:
Here are some of the most trusted auction houses in Europe and America. As a general rule, the bigger the company, the higher quality the work of art, and the higher the potential hammer price. Bidders can always attend an auction in person, but it is common nowadays to bid by telephone or online.
Sotheby’s at sothebys.com holds live auctions in several locations including, New York and London, plus some timed, online-only auctions.
In June 2020, this 55.3 x 88.3 cm canvas sold for $20,000:
In September 2021, this 54.9 x 71.4 cm pastel, Quai de la Rapée, Paris, sold for $7,560:
Christie’s at christies.com has a major presence in New York, London and Paris and offers live as well as timed online-only auctions. In July 2021, a 65.2 x 80.7 cm circa 1880 canvas, La Seine à Charenton, sold in London for GBP 75,000, against a low estimate of GBP 20,000, indicating strong interest in high-quality paintings by the artist. See: https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6328005
Artcurial at artcurial.com is based in Paris and holds live auctions of Impressionist works there twice a year.
In July 2020, this 26.3 x 40.7 cm canvas sold for EUR 15,600, and that was more than double the low estimate:
In September 2019, a 24.5 x 34.5 cm watercolour from 1898, Bateau lavoir sur une rivière d’Ile de France, sold for EUR 2,210:
HÔTEL DROUOT at drouot-estimations.com in Paris is an umbrella organization hosting dozens of independent auctioneers in a physical space and online. Reputable auction houses, such as Ader, Millon and Tajan host fine art auctions through Drouot Live and online.
Bonhams at bonhams.com is based in London but conducts live auctions in the U.S. as well.
Heritage Auctions at ha.com holds auctions in multiple U.S. locations and is based in Texas.
Others: there are many small auction houses especially in Europe but also in the U.S. that frequently offer works by Guillaumin. The American online platform, liveauctioneers.com, allows users to sign up for free and set an alert that tells them well in advance of a Guillaumin coming up for auction. Users can also bid through this platform, but the buyer’s premium is high. In Europe, lotsearch.net functions in much the same way but offers many more choices of artworks in several European nations as does mutualart.com, which also offers insights and research, some for free, some for paid subscribers only.
Private Dealers:
Private art dealers are located in major cities around the world and many have Guillaumins in stock. The advantages of purchasing through a reputable dealer include the expertise they offer and the confidence they can instill in the buyer that the piece is authentic and desirable. Three resources that are helpful in locating them are: artnet.com, artsy.net and 1stdibs.com. A search will regularly bring up close to a dozen results on artnet and artsy, a half dozen or so on 1stdibs.
It should be noted that works, especially paintings, purported to have been done by Armand Guillaumin but are not genuine do appear frequently online. Some clearly look nothing like the artist’s work. Some appear similar (subject, palette) but are often overdone- the colours are too bold or too loosely applied. They are meant to look like Guillaumins but are not. Others have surfaced on dodgy-looking auction sites that use deceptive wording, such as the descriptor, “signed A. Guillaumin”, that do not explicitly state the work is by the artist but leave that impression by including the dates of birth and death of Armand Guillaumin in the lot description. Buyer beware.
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Armand Guillaumin 