Charles Giron

Charles Alexandre Giron (2 April 1850 – 9 June 1914) was a Swiss painter and art critic. He specialized in portraits and scenes with figures, some of them mildly humorous.

Biography Giron was born on 2 April 1850 in Geneva. His father, Antoine-Alexandre Giron, was a Catholic from Spain who came to Switzerland via Sardinia and his mother, Marie Henriod, was a Huguenot from Neuchâtel.

Initially, Giron was apprenticed to an enameler but decided to become an artist instead. He began by taking lessons from François Diday and Barthélemy Menn in Geneva. In 1872, he went to Paris, where he frequented the Hôtel de Nice, a boarding house on the that was home to some painters from Switzerland. Later, he shared several studios with Max Leenhardt. His first exhibition at the Salon came in 1876 and consisted mostly of landscapes. Giron was awarded the Order of Leopold in 1887 and, the following year, was named a Chevalier in the Legion of Honor. In 1891, he married Jeanne Antoinette Forget, the daughter of a merchant. They had three children. Their daughter, Simone, married into the noble Pourtalès family.

After being active in Paris and Cannes, Giron and his family returned to Switzerland in 1896 and lived in several locations before settling in Genthod. In his capacity as an art critic, he came to the defense of Ferdinand Hodler when Hodler's controversial proposal for frescoes in the Weapons Room at the Swiss National Museum was rejected. Giron sat on the admissions jury for the Exposition Universelle (1900). In 1901, he created murals for the National Council in Bern. From 1898 to 1912, he served several terms on the (Federal Fine Arts Commission). In 1913, Giron suffered a stroke that left him unable to paint. He died on 9 June 1914 in Genthod.

Two major retrospectives have been held: Zürich-Geneva in 1920 and Bern in 1955. A street in Geneva is named after him.

Selected paintings