Antoine Vollon (23 April 1833 – 27 August 1900)[1] was a French realist artist, best known as a painter of still lifes, landscapes, and figures.

He began an apprenticeship to an engraver in metal, and studied under Jehan Georges Vibert at the École des Beaux-Arts in Lyon from 1850 to 1853 to become a printmaker.

[9] He submitted a figure painting of a woman carrying a large basket on her back, Femme du Pollet à Dieppe (Seine-Inferieure), to the 1876 Salon, where it won first prize[10] and received universally great reviews.

"[9]Carol Forman Tabler wrote: "Once Vollon began exhibiting at the Salon, he quickly gained recognition from the critics and the public at large, and, most importantly, from Second-Empire officialdom.

He had learned how to play the political game that would earn him State patronage and enable him to win numerous awards...."[9]Tabler describes his ambition and the decades-long strategies Vollon used to secure a place in history.

[9] Amongst his collectors Alexandre Dumas jr, Antoine Lumière, Auguste Pellerin, Norbert Pain, the stockbroker Theodore-Charles Gadala, docteur Marchand, Mme Carcano and the Earl of Salisbury (once the UK Secretary of Foreign Affairs) were the most publicly known.

Vollon also had students, among whom were Raymond Allègre (1857-1933), Joseph Garibaldi (1863-1941), Henri Michel-Lévy (1845-1914), Théo Mayan (1860-1936) and Gustave le Sénéchal de Kerdréoret (1840-1933).

For The New York Times, a reviewer wrote, "Vollon smacks too much of other artists to be Truly Important, but his sensuous wallows in paint are well worth wider notice".