This page forms part of a series of pages dedicated to the many artists who worked in Mont Saint-Michel. A full list of all the artists with a link to their works can be found at the bottom of this page.
NOTE: To our knowledge, Paul Huet did not work in Mont Saint-Michel itself, but instead worked in nearby Granville.
Movement(s): –
Paul Huet (1803 – 1869) was a French painter and printmaker born in Paris. He studied under Gros and Guerin. He met the English painter Richard Parkes Bonington in the studio of Gros, where he studied irregularly from 1819 to 1822.
Bonington’s example influenced Huet to reject neoclassicism and instead paint landscapes based on close observation of nature. The British landscape paintings exhibited in the Salon of 1824 were a revelation to Huet, who said of Constable’s work: “It was the first time perhaps that one felt the freshness, that one saw a luxuriant, verdant nature, without blackness, crudity or mannerism.“
Huet’s subsequent work combined emulation of the English style with inspiration derived from Dutch and Flemish old masters such as Rubens, Jacob van Ruisdael, and Meindert Hobbema.
Huet participated in the July Revolution of 1830, and was involved in republican politics for a period afterwards. He was awarded a pair of Sevres porcelain vases from King Louis-Philippe in 1844. He was awarded a gold medal at the Salon of 1848. He exhibited in the Exposition Universelle of 1855, where he was awarded a medal, and also exhibited in the International Exposition of 1867.
Huet’s works, which include oil paintings, watercolors, etchings, and lithographs, are Romantic in feeling. He was unusual among French landscape painters in his use of watercolor for sketching as well as for finished works, which were often so richly developed that they resemble oil paintings. The vividness with which he depicted natural forms influenced the painters of the Barbizon School and later the Impressionists.
Huet died in Paris on 8 January 1869.
Click here to read Huet’s full bio on Wikipedia.
NOTE: Click on any image below for a bigger version (no new window will open).
Granville
The city of Granville (population: 13,000) is located to the North of Mont Saint-Michel along the coast.
Paul Huet painted several places in Normandy, see list below ( a link “⇠” to his works in those cities will appear below when published):
- Brittany
- Vitre
- Hauts-de-France
- Eu
- Pierrefonds
- Saint-Valery-en-Somme
- Normandy
- Etretat ⇠
- Honfleur ⇠
- Le Havre⇠
- Harfleur ⇠
- Le Treport
- Mont Saint-Michel (surrounding only)
- Granville
- Rouen
- Trouville-sur-Mer ⇠
- Occitanie
- Aigues-Mortes
- Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur
- Nice
- Villefranche-sur-Mer
The Mont Saint-Michel is a very impressive village, used as backdrop for many artists travelling in the region. Here are the artists that we have found that worked in the area (a link “⇠” will appear next to an artist name when we published their works of art. A “*” next to a name indicates that the artist did NOT work in Mont Saint-Michel itself, but closeby).
- 🇬🇧 Bonington, Richard Parkes
- 🇬🇧 Callow, William
- 🇬🇧 Cooke, Edward William
- 🇬🇧 Cotman, John Sell
- 🇬🇧 Fergusson, John Duncan
- 🇫🇷 Gudin, Theodore
- 🇫🇷 Guillaumin, Armand *
- 🇫🇷 Huet, Paul *
- 🇫🇷 Isabey, Eugene
- 🇬🇧 Kay, James
- 🇫🇷 Letellier, Emile-Andre
- 🇬🇧 Meadows, Arthur Joseph
- 🇫🇷 Michallon, Achille-Etna
- 🇫🇷 Parrott, William *
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