Francois Joseph Girardin (October 6, 1856 – August 7, 1945) was an

American impressionist American Impressionism was a style of painting related to European Impressionism and practiced by American artists in the United States from the mid-nineteenth century through the beginning of the twentieth. The style is characterized by loose b ...

artist who worked in the areas of

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

, Ohio;

Richmond, Indiana Richmond is a city in eastern Wayne County, Indiana. Bordering the state of Ohio, it is the county seat of Wayne County and is part of the Dayton, OH Metropolitan Statistical Area In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 36,812. Situa ...

; and Los Angeles, California. He was also an early player for the

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

baseball team. Born in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

, Girardin came to Cincinnati in the 1870s and studied under

Thomas Satterwhite Noble Thomas Satterwhite Noble (May 29, 1835 – April 27, 1907) was an American painter as well as the first head of the McMicken School of Design in Cincinnati, Ohio. Biography Noble was born in Lexington, Kentucky, and raised on a plantation wher ...

and later

Frank Duveneck Frank Duveneck (né Decker; October 9, 1848 – January 3, 1919) was an American figure and portrait painter. Early life Duveneck was born in Covington, Kentucky, the son of German immigrant Bernhard Decker. Decker died in a cholera epidemic whe ...

at the

Cincinnati Art Academy The Art Academy of Cincinnati is a private college of art and design in Cincinnati, Ohio, accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design. It was founded as the McMicken School of Design in 1869, and was a department of the U ...

. He was best known for his landscape paintings of both Indiana and southern California. Girardin played an important role in the development of the Art Association of Richmond (now the

Richmond Art Museum The Richmond Art Museum was founded in 1898 as the Art Association of Richmond, Indiana. Artist John Elwood Bundy and author and attorney William Dudley Foulke were instrumental in the founding. Permanent collection Its collection includes imp ...

) was a prominent member of the

Richmond Group The Richmond Group also known as the Richmond School, is a group of American Impressionist painters who worked in the Richmond, Indiana, area from the late 19th Century through the mid-20th Century. While the Richmond Group had no formal organizati ...

of artists. He was a member of the board of directors of the Art Association for several years. It was during his time in Indiana that he received the most recognition for his work. He exhibited three paintings in the Indiana building at the

St. Louis World's Fair The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the St. Louis World's Fair, was an international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, from April 30 to December 1, 1904. Local, state, and federal funds totaling $15 milli ...

in 1904 and was a member of the Society of Western Artists. In 1910, Girardin moved to Redondo Beach, California where he painted local landscapes. His paintings are found in the San Diego Museum of Art; the

Haan Mansion Museum of Indiana Art The Haan Mansion Museum of Indiana Art is a public museum in Lafayette, Indiana, housing the largest collection of Indiana art anywhere in the world. The museum is located in the Potter-Haan Mansion at 920 E State Street. The museum's collection ...

, the

; the Art Museum of Greater Lafayette; Morrisson-Reeves Library; Kokomo-Howard County Public Library; Connersville, Indiana Public Library and the Wayne County (Indiana) Historical Museum. Girardin died in Redondo Beach on August 7, 1945, and was buried there.

References

* Burnet, Mary Q. (1921). ''Art and Artists of Indiana''. New York: The Century Co. 1856 births 1945 deaths 19th-century American painters American male painters 20th-century American painters American Impressionist painters Painters from Cincinnati Artists from Richmond, Indiana Artists from Louisville, Kentucky Painters from Kentucky Painters from California People from Redondo Beach, California 19th-century American male artists 20th-century American male artists {{Louisville-stub