four Alsatian painters on display at the Museum of Fine Arts

For the museum, this exhibition is also a great way to enhance its holdings, of which, due to lack of space, 9/10^And sleep in reserves. “Most of our collections are not presented to the public and we have a large collection of works from the 1920s^And century” added Lionel Pinero.

With her co-curator and museum director, Chloé Tuboeuf, they then selected the most emblematic works of four painters of Alsatian origin whose museum “it had a fairly large foundation fund”.

The exhibition presents one artist per room, each time with a photo, some biographical notes and a dozen significant works. The goal is not to overwhelm the visitor, but to allow him to grasp, in a few paintings, the personality and artistic specificity of each painter.

Born and died in Mulhouse, Robert Breitwieser is unclassifiable. Throughout his career, he has never stopped renewing his art. He trained at the Stuttgart Academy of Fine Arts (Baden-Württemberg), studied in Munich (Bavaria) and Paris, and regularly stayed in various German and Swiss cities.

Early in his career he was influenced by German Expressionism and in Munich he joined the artistic group of Blaue Reiter (the Blue Rider), whose members were called Vassily Kandinsky, August Macke or Paul Klee. He is also friends with writers, musicians, including Richard Strauss, and poets such as Jean-Paul de Dadelsen, and his compatriot Sundgauvian, Nathan Katz.

The portraits presented by the Mulhouse Museum of Fine Arts testify to his incessant search for new artistic paths. Not far from the expressionist portrait of his wife Suzanne, that of the musician Alexandre-Henri Meyer, from 1930, is clearly impressionist.

“Breitwieser comes from a musical family” explains Jean-Marc Fritsch, guide in Mulhouse. “For him, color and sound are so essential that they cannot be put into words. And there is musicality in his art.” Musicality that his model Alexandre-Henri Meyer perceived, to the point of drawing inspiration from another of his paintings to compose a symphony.

Another portrait done by Robert Breitwieser uses the knife technique. And that of Doctor Wetzel of Munster, “who supported him a lot and gave him a lot of money” looks like a watercolor.

From the late 1920s, Robert Breitwieser moved to Paris, but kept his summer studio in Mulhouse. He made long stays in different cities of France, became a member of the Institut de France, the Academy of Fine Arts and the Society of Independent Artists. And he died on May 11, 1975 in his hometown.

The Sundgauvian Léon Lehmann entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris at the end of the 19th^And century, thanks to the influence of his compatriot Jean-Jacques Henner. He frequents Henri Matisse and Georges Rouault, and discovers different artistic currents.

His early still lifes reveal a clear influence from Cézanne, but he soon developed a very personal style. The three still lifes with apples presented in the exhibition clearly show the evolution of his work. on the last one, “there is much more material, let’s see how much thickness it creates” explains Jean-Marc Fritsch.

This texture, thick or smoothed with a knife, as well as dark tones, revealing a subtle play of light, characterize most of the work of the Altkirch artist.

Sent to the front during the First World War, Léon Lehmann returned there in 1917, seriously ill. He then painted one of his most remarkable canvases, “Invalide de guerre”. A portrait with a strong emotional charge “attracting visitors” according to Jean-Marc Fritsch. “Looking at him, we see that this man is not well. That he is mentally and physically ill. The painter shows his illness through matter (…) We perceive him very well.”

In the 1920s Lehmann moved to Paris, hosted by his friend Rouault for several years. Galleries exhibit it. His landscapes, dislocated shapes and elongated lines, end up bordering on abstraction. Two paintings from the exhibition were painted in Altkirch, “but the visitors don’t recognize the places” laughs Jean-Marc Fritsch. Winter and summer scenes, the atmosphere always remains in this chiaroscuro which lets a discrete clarity emerge.

After several stays in various French cities, Léon Lehmann returned to his hometown in 1946, where he died on November 2, 1953. His works can be admired in several museums in France, but also elsewhere in Europe and the United States. And seven of his paintings are kept in the Vatican.

After an apprenticeship in a textile printing workshop in Mulhouse, and evening classes at the school of the SIM (Industrial Company of Mulhouse), Alfred Giess abandoned industrial design for artistic training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In 1929 he won the Rome Grand Prix, “which opens many doors for him” explains Jean-Marc Fritsch.

Quickly recognized by his colleagues, he presided over the jury of the Salon des artistes français in 1937 and became a member of the Academy of Fine Arts in 1955. In the 1960s he exhibited internationally: Munich, Zurich and New York. Very classic and respectful of pictorial genres, he still manages to develop a unique, very refined personal style.

Among the works presented in the exhibition: a nude study, restored for the occasion, landscapes, as well as some portraits, including those of Jules Spengler, director of the Manurhin factory, and his wife. Portraits with very lively and detailed faces, but with an extremely bare decoration, almost as to give the impression of an unfinished work.

In his home village of Morschwiller-le-Bas, the country’s son is not forgotten. “One of his paintings hangs in the hall of the town hall. Another is in the church. And since 1954 our school group bears his name” proudly lists du member Paul Bohler circle of history Local. Furthermore, “several inhabitants still have paintings by Giess in their homes.”

The Cercle d’histoire is doing its best to keep the flame alive. In 2021 it featured a work by the painter in each of its monthly bulletins. And last September he dedicated an exhibition to him thanks to a loan from the artist’s niece, who lives in Haute-Saône and owns nearly 80 of his works.

“We always think of him. It is important that people remember that a painter of his fame was born in the village” esteemed Paul Bohler. In 1957, Alfred Giess became curator of the Jean-Jacques Henner museum in Paris. He died in Gray (Alta Saona), on September 26, 1973.

“Entering the room dedicated to him, one is almost dazzled by the overabundance of colours” exclaims Jean-Marc Fritsch. And he explains: “Charles Walch had a birth defect (right arm atrophied and right leg shorter), and painting was his outlet.”

Also trained at the SIM (Mulhouse Industrial Company) drawing school, Charles Walch then moved on to the School of Fine Arts, then to that of Decorative Arts, in Paris, where he settled permanently.

His paintings, in which the influences of a Matisse or a Chagall can be recognized, dive into a dreamlike, poetic universe that draws on religious symbolism. “The wardrobe with the angel” recalls the Annunciation to Mary. In “Architects and builders”, we find a Mother with child, even evocation of the Nativity, in addition to the attributes of cathedral builders.

“Recently a visitor told me that this painting had a connection with the painter’s childhood” confides Jean-Marc Fritsch. “The the woman holding it was a seamstress, which would explain the spool of thread in the foreground.” You can also admire two of his preparatory drawings, never exhibited before.

During the first twenty years, Charles Walch struggled to make himself known. It was only in 1937, and obtaining the gold medal at the Paris International Exhibition, that his career took off. He died in 1948 in his studio in Paris.

These four painters and their works can be discovered or rediscovered in the exhibition Alsatian artists 1910-1960 which will be held until January 29 at the Mulhouse Museum of Fine Arts. And this Saturday, December 3 at 3pm, Jean-Marc Fritsch will be giving a guided tour in Alsatian.