Hans Seiler (1907-1986) The Cliffs Of Marqueyssac And Castelnaud Dordogne

Hans SEILER
(Neuchâtel 1907 – 1986)
The cliffs of Marqueyssac and Castelnaud, seen from La Roque Gageac
Oil on canvas
H. 40 cm; L. 83 cm
Signed lower right, dated 1973

Provenance : Private collection, Paris

Born in Switzerland, Hans Seiler spent his childhood in Bern where his father, a doctor, practiced. At 17, he was already passionate about drawing and walked around with notebooks that he filled with sketches. The curator of the city museum, who was able to take a look at his work, advised him to begin artistic training. Seiler went to Lyon and entered the city's School of Fine Arts in the sculpture section under the direction of a student of Rodin. The latter quickly pushes him to take off and reach Paris. It was in 1927 that he entered the Académie Ranson where Roger Bissière taught him painting. This connection will be felt in Seiler's art until the last days of his life. Having become a friend of his master, he met Marcel Gromaire who would also be an artistic pillar in his life and a faithful friend. In 1934, he settled in Chennevières sur Marne with his wife, then bought a charming house in Périgord, at La Roque Gageac, at the dawn of the war. This residence which overlooks the Dordogne and provides a breathtaking landscape from the terrace, will be a place of resource and life for the painter and his family. Many works will be created at the foot of the cliffs and seen from inside the house. Seiler traveled extensively in Finistère and Normandy in the 1930s, then the Netherlands and its flat landscapes with heavy skies. He discovered Spain in 1978 and where he stayed every fall until 1986 and created magnificent works of fortified cities or dry mountains. Numerous exhibitions have been devoted to his art during his life and since his death, notably at the Bonnat Museum in Bayonne, and by various Parisian and Swiss galleries. The most recent was produced at the Meudon museum in 2007 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his birth. Stylistically, Seiler works on plays of light, between shading and illuminated points, which he often delimits by lines crisscrossing the compositions. From contrasting works in bright colors, he moved in the last 15 years of his life to light, pastel shades, which give the landscapes a new approach that no artist had yet given in Périgord.

This view taken from Roque Gageac is not the most academic. Made from the garden of the painter's house, it shows us the entire panorama that this magical place in Périgord develops. On the left, behind the poplars, the silhouette of the Château de Castelnaud can be seen, and to its right, the cliffs located below the magnificent boxwood park of the Marqueyssac manor. As usual, Seiler uses his pastel palette here, developing gray and green tones in a multitude of variations, crossing lights and materials to obtain an extraordinary Perigord landscape.