Item Details:

THE FAMILY PICNIC

CHARLES GIRON

IMPRESSIONISM

Oil Painting on Canvas, 1898

Size: 33.1 x 26.25 in; 84.14 x 66.68 cm

Signed: Recto, lower left

Swiss painter and art critic Charles Alexandre Giron (2 April 1850, Geneva - 9 June 1914, Genthod) specialized in portraits and scenes with figures; some of them mildly humorous. Initially, he was apprenticed to an enameler, but decided to become an artist instead. He began by taking lessons from François Diday and Barthélemy Menn in Geneva. In 1872, he went to Paris, where he frequented the Hôtel de Nice, a boarding house on the Rue des Beaux-Arts [fr] that was home to some painters from Switzerland. Later, he shared several studios with Max Leenhardt. His first exhibition at the Salon came in 1876 and consisted mostly of landscapes. Eventually, he found a position in the studios of Alexandre Cabanel at the École des Beaux-Arts. After being active in Paris and Cannes, he and his family returned to Switzerland in 1896 and lived in several locations before settling in Genthod. He sat on the admissions jury for the Exposition Universelle (1900). In 1901, he created murals for the National Council in Berne. From 1898 to 1912, he served several terms on the Eidgenössische Kunstkommission [de] (Federal Fine Arts Commission). In 1913, he suffered a stroke that left him unable to paint. Two major retrospectives have been held: Zürich/Geneva in 1920 and Berne in 1955. A street in Geneva is named after him.