ABSTRACT
Augustin-Andre Gonfond added views of the family's successive homes as well as landmarks of Saint-Remy-de-Provence to the decoration. The museum's exhibit is unusual both because miniatures of the modern age are rarely shown in a museum setting, but also because the collection seems to encompass most of Gonfond's oeuvre. Augustin-Andre Gonfond was born in 1849 in Saint-Remy-de-Provence to a family of cultivateurs. Various vignettes in Gonfond's manuscripts depict sites more closely related to the artist's family life and region. Images of buildings in places other than Saint-Remy-de-Provence adorn the margins of the manuscripts as well, although not all can be identified with certainty. Finally, Gonfond placed coats of arms in his borders, again taking his cue from medieval manuscript illuminators. Some of the painted armorial shields seem fanciful inventions, while others can be identified. Among the latter are the arms of Provence and of Saint-Remy-de-Provence.
