3819 - PERRIER, ALEXANDRE (1862 Geneva 1936): "Vie de poète - l'adolescence"

PERRIER, ALEXANDRE (1862 Geneva 1936): "Vie de poète - l'adolescence" Oil on canvas Signed and dated 1924 on the reverse, and titled on the stretcher 134x199 cm, framed Provenance: E. Schweizer-Menzel, Hünibach near Thun (identified on the reverse as the commissioner); private collection, Switzerland. The Swiss artist Alexandre Perrier, who trained in Paris, is known for his numerous, vibrantly colored mountain paintings. In particular, the mountains surrounding his hometown of Geneva appear repeatedly as motifs in his oeuvre. Through his close contact with the French Pointillists and Impressionists, Perrier adopted a bright and colorful painting style that broke with his otherwise precise, almost scientific observation of the mountains. Unlike his contemporaries, he did not paint “en plein air,” but rather in the warmth of his studio, where he reconstructed his landscapes based on sketches and notes. In this work as well, he captured the landscape of Praz de Lys in the Savoy region of the Mont Blanc massif in a recognizable yet stylized manner. Perrier knew the area very well, as his brother owned a small cabin there where the painter often spent the night after hikes. The composition on offer differs markedly from most of Perrier’s other mountain landscapes in that it is rendered in a much freer and more Symbolist style. The composition is part of the “History of the Poet” series, an artistic ideal imagined by Perrier. It depicts the artist’s coming of age, as indicated by the three muses in the lower left corner and the depiction of Pygmalion slightly to the right. Auction date: November 6, 2026, 7:15 p.m.