Hans Seiler (1907–1986) The Cliffs Of La Roque Gageac, Dordogne, Périgord

Hans SEILER
(Neuchâtel 1907 – 1986)
The Cliffs of La Roque Gageac
Gouache on paper
H. 46.5 cm; W. 53 cm
Signed lower center, dated 1977

Provenance: Private collection, Paris

Born in Switzerland, Hans Seiler spent his childhood in Bern, where his father, a doctor, practiced medicine. At age 17, he was already passionate about drawing and would go for walks carrying sketchbooks that he filled with sketches. The curator of the city museum, who had a chance to look at his work, advised him to pursue an artistic education. Seiler went to Lyon and enrolled in the city’s École des Beaux-Arts in the sculpture department under the guidance of a student of Rodin’s. She quickly encouraged him to spread his wings and move to Paris.

In 1927, he enrolled at the Académie Ranson, where Roger Bissière taught him painting. This influence would be evident in Seiler’s art until the very end of his life. Having become friends with his teacher, he met Marcel Gromaire, who would also become an artistic pillar in his life and a loyal friend.

In 1934, he settled in Chennevières-sur-Marne with his wife, then, on the eve of the war, purchased a charming house in the Périgord region, in La Roque-Gageac. This home, which overlooks the Dordogne and offers a breathtaking view of the landscape from the terrace, became a place of respite and vitality for the painter and his family. Numerous works were created at the foot of the cliffs and from inside the house.

Seiler traveled extensively throughout Finistère and Normandy beginning in the 1930s, and later explored the Netherlands with its flat landscapes and stormy skies. He discovered Spain in 1978 and spent every fall there until 1986, creating magnificent works depicting fortified towns and arid mountains.

Numerous exhibitions have been dedicated to his art during his lifetime and since his death, notably at the Musée Bonnat in Bayonne and at various galleries in Paris and Switzerland. The most recent exhibition took place at the Meudon Museum in 2007 to mark the 100th anniversary of his birth.

Stylistically, Seiler worked with the interplay of light—between shadows and highlights—which he often delineated with grid-like lines crisscrossing his compositions. From works characterized by vivid, contrasting colors, he shifted in the last 15 years of his life to soft, pastel hues, which lent his landscapes a fresh perspective that no artist had yet captured in the Périgord.

This view of La Roque-Gageac is not the most conventional. Taken from the road coming from Castelnaud, the cliff in the foreground partially obscures the charming Château de la Malartrie, of which only one tower is visible. In the background, the rooftops of the village of La Roque-Gageac can be seen, nestled against their high, protective limestone wall.