Snow-covered Landscape, Kloster Cavadurli, Silvretta, Switzerland

Oil on canvas by Clément Castelli depicting Cavadürli in Klosters and the Silvretta. The work captures the atmosphere of the high Alpine peaks through a textured application of paint with a palette knife.

Code: QM252
Date: circa 1910
Provenance: Paris
Artist: Clément Castelli (1870–1959)
Technique: oil on canvas

Dimensions of artwork: 38 x 55 cm
Dimensions of artwork with frame: 70 cm x 53 cm

Description:

The painting depicts the hamlet of Cavadürli, located in the Swiss municipality of Klosters. The composition unfolds from a foreground dominated by a snow-covered slope, interrupted on the left by the outline of a dark wooden barn with a gabled roof entirely covered by a blanket of snow. A diagonal trail of footprints cuts through the snow, guiding the viewer’s gaze toward the background, where the Silvretta mountain range stands out—partially covered in snow and silhouetted against a clear sky of blue-gray hues.

The painting technique features an application of paint executed primarily with a palette knife and a heavily loaded brush—a method that lends sculptural relief and textural depth to both the rocky walls and the masses of snow. The color palette is based on a cool range of whites, grays, and shades of blue, contrasted by the brown tones of the wooden structure and by pinkish hues that depict the play of sunlight on the peaks.

The work is signed in the lower right corner. On the reverse of the canvas is a contemporary handwritten inscription identifying the painter and the precise geographical location (“Klosters – Cavadürli – Schweiz”), flanked by a circular stamp bearing the painter’s name and the city: Paris. The painting is set within a carved wooden frame featuring continuous leaf-scroll motifs, finished with a lacquer in shades of white and gray and accented with gold highlights.

Biographical notes on the artist: Clément Castelli (Premia, 1870 – Paris, 1959), a naturalized French painter, dedicated his artistic career to depicting high-altitude landscapes. Trained in Paris, he exhibited regularly at the Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and the Salon des Indépendants. As a member of the Société des Peintres de Montagne, he documented the major French, Swiss, and Italian Alpine groups, perfecting a textural style based on the use of a palette knife to convey the texture of rocks and snow-covered surfaces.