3043 - EDOUARD VALLET

EDOUARD VALLET (Geneva 1876–1929 Cressy) Montagne, Vercorin. 1921. Oil on canvas. Signed and dated lower right: ED. VAllET 1921. 38 × 61.5 cm. Provenance: - Private collection Theodor Fischer, Lucerne, purchased at the 1929 exhibition. - Auction Fischer Lucerne, 20 November 1997, lot 1130. - Private collection, Switzerland, acquired at the above auction. Exhibited: - Zurich 1929, Gedächtnis-Ausstellung Edouard Vallet, Kunsthaus Zürich, 25 August–22 September 1929, no. 117, as ‘Bergkette bei Vercorin’. - Lucerne 1933/34, Eröffnungsausstellung, Kunstmuseum Luzern, 10 December 1933–30 March 1934, no. 476, as ‘Montagne – Vercorin’. Literature: - Exhibition catalogue Gedächtnis-Ausstellung Edouard Vallet, Zurich 1929, p. 10, no. 117. - Bernard Wyder and Jacques Dominique Rouiller: Catalogue raisonné de l’œuvre peint d’Edouard Vallet, Geneva 2006, p. 541, no. 467 (ill. p. 432). Edouard Vallet drew increasing inspiration from the valleys and mountain peaks of the Valais, recording them in numerous drawings and painted studies. ‘Montagne, Vercorin’, dating from 1921, belongs to a group of works in which the artist repeatedly explored the same subject. His aim was less to reproduce nature faithfully than to offer a personal, poetic interpretation of it. The high horizon emphasises the silhouettes of the mountains and lends the composition a clear structure. Golden nuances and earthy tones bathe the landscape in gentle light, evoking the warmth of late summer.