Louis Remy Mignot (American, 1831-1870), Low Tide, Hastings

Oil on canvas (lined), 1867, signed with monogram and dated at lower right, retaining exhibition label to verso, presented in a giltwood frame.

Stretcher size 16 x 23 1/2 in.; Frame dimensions 20 x 27 1/4 in.

Exhibited:
Louis R. Mignot: A Southern Painter Abroad, The North Carolina Museum of Art, 20 October 1996 - 1 May 1997.

Louis Rémy Mignot was an American landscape painter associated with the Hudson River School, celebrated for his richly detailed and atmospheric depictions of both American and tropical landscapes. Born in Charleston, South Carolina, to French Huguenot parents, Mignot received artistic training in Europe, studying in The Hague under Andreas Schelfhout. His work stood out for its refined technique, luminous skies, and subtle use of color, reflecting both European academic influence and American Romanticism. Mignot gained early recognition through exhibitions in the United States and abroad, particularly for his scenes inspired by a journey to Ecuador with fellow artist Frederic Edwin Church.

In the late 1850s and 1860s, Mignot traveled extensively in Europe and eventually settled in London during the American Civil War. While in the United Kingdom, he formed a close friendship with American expatriate painter James Abbott McNeill Whistler, with whom he shared artistic interests and social circles. Their relationship provided Mignot with deeper access to the British art world, where he exhibited at the Royal Academy and received critical praise for his poetic treatment of landscape. This period marked an important phase in Mignot’s career, allowing him to merge American and European artistic traditions. His promising trajectory was cut short by his untimely death in 1870 during a smallpox epidemic in Brighton, England.

The painting has been lined, with very minimal professional retouching visible under UV light.

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