Signed Clement Castelli, Mountain View, 85 X 67 Cm

Signed Clement CASTELLI, Mountain View, 85 x 67 cm

Signed: “Castelli” at the bottom; artist listed in the catalog and on the side.

Oil painting on a canvas panel, in very good condition

Subject: Mountain view

Period: early 20th century

Dimensions: with frame, 85 x 67 cm.  - the painting 65 x 46 cm

Frame: period carved wooden frame, in very good condition

Biography:

Clément CASTELLI 1870 / 1959

Clément-François Castelli (born January 14, 1870, in Premia, in the province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, Italy; died December 12, 1959, in Paris) was a painter and member of the Society of Mountain Painters.

Clément Castelli was born in Premia in the Piedmont region to a family originally from the village of Coggia in the municipality of Varzo in the same province. He moved to Paris in 1880, where he attended school.

He subsequently divided his time between France (Paris and the Alps) and Italy.

In 1925, he co-organized the Italo-Swiss exhibition held in Domodossola, where he exhibited his work. He received a vermeil medal from King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, and the city of Domodossola purchased two of his paintings for its museum.

In 1933, he was named an Officer of the Academy, and in 1948, an Officer of Public Instruction, when one of his paintings was accepted into the Louvre Museum. The Louvre also owns another of his landscapes.

He died on December 12, 1959, at the age of 89, in his studio in the Montparnasse district, after being struck by a car at Place de la République in Paris.

Artistic Career:

He decided early on to pursue painting and went to study at the Free Academy of Rome. He rounded out his studies with a Grand Tour of Italy. In France, he studied under the painters Jules Adler and Léon Bellemont. He frequently returned to Italy for numerous artistic commissions.

He exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants as early as 1913 and at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1921. The City of Paris awarded him a silver medal at the Salon Violet exhibition in 1938. He exhibited at the Salon d’Hiver (Museum of Fine Arts of the City of Paris) in 1942, 1946, 1947, 1949, and 1951.

He was also recognized for his work as a restorer. In 1915, during a visit to his family’s hometown of Varzo, he noticed and uncovered a 15th-century fresco in the parish church that had been hidden beneath a thick layer of whitewash. He successfully restored the fresco. His knowledge of the Primitives and the Renaissance masters, combined with his technical skills, made Castelli a highly sought-after restorer. He also possessed a highly reliable technique for re-stretching old works onto new canvas.

Clément Castelli was, above all, a painter of mountains. He has primarily painted the Alps: the great massifs of the French Alps (the Chamonix Valley, La Meije, and the Oisans, among others), as well as the Swiss Alps (including numerous paintings depicting the Matterhorn in particular) and the Italian Alps. He depicts mountain landscapes as well as valley floors and high-mountain vistas, which his experience as a mountaineer allows him to explore.

He also painted several works depicting sites in the Pyrenees, such as the Cirque de Gavarnie, Lake Gaube, and the Ossau Valley, which he exhibited in Tarbes.

He was a prolific artist who painted a great many works. He often painted on small panels, which were easier to carry into the high mountains, but also on canvas. He painted with a brush in a fairly classical style; his palette, consisting of rather “cool” colors, is characteristic.

A stamp on the back of his paintings indicates that, at least for a time, his studio was located at 4 Rue du Faubourg-du-Temple in Paris, an address confirmed by the 1942 Salon d’Hiver catalog.

Sold with invoice,

Painting on view at our gallery in L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue (France) on weekends.

Free shipping within France

For international shipping: upon request

A2222