Louis Rémy Mignot
Louis Rémy Mignot was an American landscape artist who lived from 1831 to 1870. Although he was from South Carolina, he painted in the style of the Hudson River School of Art. He was the only southerner that painted in that movement.
Mignot’s father disapproved of his career choice to become an artist, so Louis Rémy wasn’t able to pursue it until after his father’s death when he was 17 years old. Mignot received his earliest training while living in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1850, he moved to the Netherlands to study at the Hague under one of the most famous landscape painters of the day, Andreas Schelfhout, who was also a relative by marriage of a close friend.
After moving back stateside, Mignot settled in New York, which was the place for American artists at that time, and joined the Hudson River School of Art, the American landscape painting style that was very popular at the time. In 1857, Mignot traveled to South America with fellow artist, Frederic Church, and it was the landscapes that he painted from these travels that he earned him the most notoriety. As a southern supporter, in 1862, Mignot decided to move to London to escape the American Civil War where he befriended another American artist, James Whistler. Mignot did well in Europe, often showing his works at the Royal Academy of Art in London, in addition to the Paris Exposition of 1867 and the Paris Salon in 1870.
While visiting France in 1870, Mignot found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. During the Siege of Paris in the Franco-Prussian War, Mignot was mistakenly imprisoned. While in detainment, he contracted smallpox, and though he moved to England for treatment, the smallpox ultimately killed him. He was only 39 years old. Though he was very successful during his lifetime, he died poor. He was buried in an unmarked grave in Brighton, England. After his death, Mignot’s work fell out of the public eye into obscurity.
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