A Life Shaped by the Desert Born in 1840 in Puteaux, Gustave Guillaumet began his training under the guidance of François-Edouard Picot and Félix-Joseph Barrias. His path led him to the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he studied under Alexandre Abel de Pujol. In 1861, he entered the Historical Landscape category of the Prix de Rome, seeking a scholarship to study at the Academy of France in Rome. Although he did not win that particular prize, his life took a different direction when he traveled across the Mediterranean to Algeria. Between 1861 and 1867, Guillaumet…