Jean-Baptiste Arthur CALAME (Genève, 1843-1919)

Provenance:
• France, private collection

Bibliography:
• Daniel Buscarlet, *Une lignée d’artistes suisses : Müntz-Berger, Alexandre et Arthur Calame*, Neuchâtel, Switzerland: Diffusion, Delachaux et Niestlé, 1969
• Florian Rodari, *La peinture suisse : entre réalisme et idéal (1848-1906)*, Geneva: Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, 1998

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Son of the famous Swiss painter and engraver Alexandre Calame (1810-1864), Arthur Calame naturally chose the artistic path and became his father’s pupil. His training continued as he accompanied his father on his travels from the 1860s onward. Like most of his Swiss contemporaries, Calame completed his education in Germany in 1864 by joining the Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Arts.
There, he studied under the guidance of Oswald Achenbach (1827-1905), a Prussian painter, also a specialist in landscape. Achenbach’s stays in Italy fascinated the young Calame. The light, in particular, that bathes views of Rome or Naples, prompted him to travel there himself.
Italy had a significant influence on his work. He made numerous sketches, drawing from life, attempting to capture the atmospheric effects before him.

Calame worked directly from nature. With swift strokes, he sketched the lines that constructed his skies in order to capture their precious light. Following the times of day, his works present clear, stormy moments (ill. 1), where the lighting oscillates between browns, reds, oranges, and hues of blues and whites.

Our two works form delicate examples of a highly free execution. On small-format canvases, enhancing the precious nature of these studies, the visible brushstrokes illustrate his working method: he applies different colours at once and retouches the drawing in several layers to achieve a result as close to reality as possible. These oils are essential to the artist’s production, forming a repertoire of shapes for the construction of his final works.

Just like his father, Arthur Calame chose as subjects the grand mountains and lakes of his homeland, but it was truly beyond the borders that he forged his style. In each of his poetic sketches, the carefully selected colour creates a dreamlike atmosphere, a reflection of the free spirit of this painter caught between two centuries.

M.O