Vanity

Guillaume Seignac was a member of the Socitaire des Artistes Franais and a frequent contributor to the annual Salon exhibition where he won awards in 1900 and 1903. He drew critical acclaim for his work and many of his paintings found their way into American collections. As a young man Seignac gained admittance to the cole des Beaux-Arts. Students there were encouraged to paint subjects which would further the political goal of glorifying State and official approval often ensured an artist's financial success. Within this criteria, artists studied from mythology, history and the bible. While Seignac was at the cole des Beaux-Arts he worked under William Adolphe Bouguereau (see lots ) who tutored his students to promote an "ideal" through arrangements of composition, as well as with Tony Robert-Fleury and Gabriel Ferrier whose own compositions were greatly influenced by Raphael and Titian. The lessons of these masters were quickly absorbed by Seignac in whose work can be seen an emphasis on the primacy of line and use of rich color.