Swiss School - Rollier Charles - Mother And Little Girl - Ink Wash - Signed And Dated

This is a drawing made by Charles Rollier at the very beginning of his career, in 1934. It shows a woman leaning over a little girl, in a window frame. The two faces are highlighted in white, which clearly sets them apart from the other elements made with a brush and pen, in black. The woman and the little girl are smiling. A great peaceful tenderness emerges from this small drawing.
Rollier signed and dated his work. The work, very small in size, is presented on a cream background, itself placed under a white mat highlighted with a dark gray line. The whole is placed under glass, in an elegant gilded frame. The whole is in very good condition (a few small spots of foxing, barely visible).

The artist
Charles Rollier is one of the best-known painters of the Swiss school. He was born in Milan in 1912, where he trained as a painter. Fleeing fascist Italy, he settled in Basel, Switzerland. He lived in Paris between 1938 and 1940 and became friends with the painter Gustav Bolin, whom he joined in 1940 in Mirmande in the Drôme (France) fleeing the German occupation. In 1941, urged by his father who feared the hostilities of the war, he returned to Switzerland and settled in Geneva. In the cafés of the Old Town frequented by artists and intellectuals living in Geneva, he became friends with Alberto Giacometti and Roger Montandon.
Rollier began to find success in the immediate post-war period, where he lived between Geneva and Paris. There he met Nicolas de Staël in particular. In 1952, he settled permanently in Geneva with his wife and two children. Years devoted to philosophical reading followed. He studied Buddhism and discovered Tantrism and Taoism, which would be of major interest to him throughout his career. He was also passionate about the philosophies of Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger and Karl Jaspers. He also read the writings of the Fathers of the Church. From then on, he would try to harmonize spiritual quest and pictorial practice.
From the 1950s, the painter exhibited regularly in Switzerland and abroad. He died of a heart attack in 1968.
Many museums have works by Charles Rollier. They are regularly the subject of special exhibitions and public sales.

Work visible at the gallery (07240).
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