2749 - Calame, Alexandre

Calame, Alexandre 1810 Vevey – 1864 Menton View of the Coast near Menton. 1860 Oil on canvas Signed and dated lower left: A Calame 1860 Framed 33.5 × 51.5 cm Sotheby’s, Zurich, June 9, 1993, Lot 42; private collection, Switzerland Alexandre Calame was one of the most significant and widely traveled Swiss landscape painters of the 19th century. He devoted himself primarily to Alpine landscapes, sketched on location, and is particularly known for his large-format paintings of Lake Geneva and Lake Lucerne. During his stays in the south—especially in Italy and France—his landscapes took on warmer colors and a gentler atmosphere. Against this biographical backdrop, this view of the coast near Menton, dated 1860, takes on special significance: A few years later, the Geneva-based artist, whose health was failing, moved to the Côte d’Azur on medical advice, where he died in 1864. The coastal landscape unfolds in a quiet, deserted expanse. In the foreground, a few boulders form a small beach sheltered from the open sea, while behind it a calm expanse of water stretches all the way to the gentle rolling hills on the right horizon. The expansive, serene sky occupies nearly half the picture plane and lends the composition a special lightness. The clear, finely nuanced color scheme and the subtle interplay of rocks, water, and sky allow the southern light to become the true source of the painting’s atmosphere. In place of the dramatic mountain scenes for which Calame became famous, we see here a quiet, contemplative view of nature that is characteristic of his later works. Auction date: November 28, 2026 Approximate auction time: 10:22 a.m. CET