CHARLESTON, SC.- Solitude or Sunset by Louis Rémy Mignot (American, 1831-1870) is temporarily on view through September at the Gibbes Museum of Art. Arguably one of South Carolina’s most significant native artists of all time, Mignot was born in Charleston to a French Catholic family. His painting Solitude or Sunset ranks among his most important works and is one of only a few works still in existence that has a direct relationship to South Carolina.

The only southerner among the landscape painters of the Hudson River School, Mignot enjoyed a brief but highly successful career. At the age of seventeen he traveled to the Netherlands, where he studied with Dutch landscape painter Andreas Schelfhout (1787 – 1870). After five years abroad, Mignot returned to America. He settled in New York City where he became associated with artists of the Hudson River School. Solitude or Sunset was one of two works by Mignot exhibited in Charleston at the South Carolina Institute in 1854.

In January 2009, a local philanthropist attempted to purchase the painting at auction for the Gibbes’ collection. The painting ultimately went to the highest bidder and was acquired by Mr. Louis Bacon. Mr. Bacon understood the significance of the painting to Charleston and heard of the museum’s interest in exhibiting the painting, and so he offered to loan the painting to the Gibbes. Solitude or Sunset will be on view in Gallery F on the first floor of the museum through September 30.