Paul Guigou was born in the Vaucluse, where his family were beekeepers and small-property owners. In 1850 his family settled in Marseilles where he studied four years later with Émile Loubon (1809-1863), the director of the local École des Beaux-Arts. Guigou painted primarily Provençal landscapes en plein air, in line with his teacher Loubon. In 1855 he first visited Paris and from then on would often travel between the capital and Marseilles. Guigou was influenced by the Barbizon painters who exhibited in Marseilles and later by Courbet (q.v.), whose work he saw on a visit to Paris in 1859. That same year he became friends with Monticelli (q.v.) with whom he often painted. Guigou exhibited regularly in the south, but his works met with mixed reviews. In 1862 he finally settled in Paris and, beginning in 1863, participated annually in the Salon. His paintings, however, went generally unnoticed. In order to earn some money, he gave drawing lessons and wrote exhibition reviews. In 1865 he could not afford to return to Marseilles, as he usually did, and made painting excursions along the Seine and Marne. It was not until his friend Théodore Duret, the French writer and collector, wrote a review of the Salon of 1870 in L'Électeur Libre, that Guigou's talents were acknowledged. He died from a stroke at the age of thirty-seven.