Armand Guillaumin grew up in a working-class family and spent much of his childhood in Moulins. In 1857 he was sent to Paris to become a clerk in his uncle's lingerie shop. He quickly entered a municipal art school and three years later, hoping to find more time to pursue his interest in art, left his uncle's shop and took a position at the Paris-Orléans railway. His free time was still limited, however, and although he made studies of the workers and the landscape around the railway area, he continued to paint mainly on Sundays. In 1861 he enrolled at the Académie Suisse, where he met Cézanne (q.v.) and Pissarro (q.v.), with whom he would later develop a solid friendship. He also came under the influence of Courbet (q.v.), using a dark palette to create strong outlines and thick impasto. Guillaumin exhibited at the Salon des Refusés in 1863 and in many of the impressionist exhibitions. He could not live just by his painting and in 1868, after two years of unemployment, joined the Ponts et Chaussées (Department of Bridges and Roads) of the city of Paris, soon working nights. He painted with Pissarro in Pontoise and with Cézanne at the home of Dr. Paul Gachet in Auvers. During the late 1880s Guillaumin's work became more subjective, and he began to use color more expressively, anticipating the Fauves. He became a friend of van Gogh (q.v.), and some of his works were sold by Theo van Gogh. In 1886 he married Marie-Josephine Gareton, a professor at a women's school, who supported him financially. After winning the state lottery in 1891, he was able to concentrate completely on his painting, traveling between Agay, Crozant, and Saint-Palais-sur-Mer throughout the year and even making a trip to Holland in 1903-4.
