ERNEST BIÉLER | FILLE DANS LES BLÉS

Edouard Grandjean, Lausanne (1912)

Jules Paillard, Zurich (1956)

Private collection, Switzerland (by descent to the present owner)

Exposition E. Biéler, exhibition catalogue, Lausanne 1912, no. 26

Paul Geiger, Schweizerisches Archiv für Volkskunde, vol. 42, ISH 1, Basel 1945 (ill. the woodcut of the painting on the front cover)

The national exhibitions of Geneva in 1896 and Bern in 1914 mark a reaction against the rapid industrialization Switzerland was experiencing and the emergence of a national artistic style. Biéler and the artists who gravitated around him, in what is known today as the School of Savièse, saw the social changes as a threat to cultural patrimony and they championed a return to a simpler more authentic way of life. Biéler developed with brio portraits of rural Valaisan subjects, which he executed in tempera from 1906 onwards, in a style inspired by early Netherlandish and Italian Renaissance techniques.

These portraits constitute some of the artist’s most original works. He liked to set a sitters’s profile against a finely executed decorative landscape. The influence of Art Nouveau is still noticeable, however, in the choice of decorative motifs and in the prominent linearity of the style.

The composition is resolutely naïve and two-dimensional: the face of the young girl stands out against the background of a wheat field, with no attempt made at suggesting perspective or light and shade. This prominence given to the line allows the artist to underline the delicacy of the girl’s features. The sheaves of wheat in the background serve as a reference to her local community and activity. With these portraits Biéler not only describes a chosen sitter, but above all the village customs, the authenticity of the rural life and the preservation of traditional costumes.

This work will be included in the upcoming catalogue raisonné of Ernest Biéler by Ethel Mathier.

This watercolour is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by Ethel Mathier (2017).