Victor Gabriel Gilbert Biography | Oil Painting Reproductions

Victor-Gabriel Gilbert was born shortly before the 1848 Revolution, the year that brought about liberalizing reforms to the Salon exhibition structure and that enabled more artists to present new works of art.

Victor Gabriel Gilbert’s parents did not have enough money to send him to study at the École des Beaux-Arts, so instead at the age of thirteen, he began working as an apprentice to Eugène Adam, a painter, and decorator. During the evening after work, he would go to the École de la Ville de Paris, for his artistic training. The mid-nineteenth and early twentieth century saw the introduction of the Realism Movement, art based on painting everything from the street vendors to the destitute in France, as it was.

Victor Gabriel Gilbert had two paintings debuted at the Salon of 1873 with Les Apprêts du Diner (Preparing Dinner) and Avant Le Bal (Before the Ball), a year before the Impressionist gathering showed their paintings at the first Impressionist exhibition and changed everything. During the mid-1870s Gilbert was supported by Père Martin who owned an art shop.

Early in his career, Victor Gabriel Gilbert focused on still lifes but towards the end, he turned towards regular subjects of Realism. He specialized in the Les Halles district of Paris, it still exists today but at that time was full of for street vendors and food and flower markets. By 1885 Gilbert had created a niche for himself and for his realistic depiction of the variety of Parisian life with his ability to capture different work activities and social types.

Art Movement: Realism.
Artists Influencing Victor-Gabriel Gilbert: Eugène Adam.
Artist's Biography compiled by Albert L. Mansour at The World's Artist, with text adapted from Wikipedia.