Charles-alexandre Bertier, View Of The Saint Victor Church In Meylan

Charles-Alexandre BERTIER (1860-1924) Autumn landscape – view of the church of St Victor in Meylan, from a park Oil on canvas signed lower right And presented in a gilded stucco frame Dimensions: 73 x 109 cm Spectacular autumn landscape, showing a park in the town of Meylan, with the bell tower of the church of Saint Victor in the background. This painting is similar to the one presented at the exhibition “Three masters of the Dauphinois landscape” at the Grenoble museum (3/12/2005 – 12/02/2006), under number 88. We find the same care given to the composition, the light and the colors, which perfectly render the atmosphere of an autumn landscape. Rocks partially covered with moss adorn the foreground, while very tall trees, with yellowed leaves, give this view a lot of poetry. In this work, Bertier seeks to capture a corner of nature rather than a grandiose panorama. Charles-Alexandre Bertier was born on October 1, 1860 in Grenoble into a family of glovers. He was the youngest of a family of seven children. His family enjoyed a comfortable situation, which allowed him to enter the minor seminary of Rondeau in October 1872, where he took drawing classes from Father Laurent Guétal, from whom he learned the rigor of composition. The choice of his subjects (plains, forests, river banks, rocks and snow-capped peaks) is also a legacy of Guétal. Bertier was admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he met his Jean-Alexis Achard again. He exhibited several times at the Salon, notably in 1894 where his Vallée du Vénéon au plan du Lac (Grenoble Museum) received an honorable mention. His qualities as a landscape painter and representative of the Dauphiné earned him national recognition, as evidenced by the decor he created in 1900 for the restaurant Le Train bleu at the Gare de Lyon in Paris (Sunset over the Belledonne range). Holder of 31 awards, in France and abroad, he was a member of the Society of French Artists, a founding member of the Society of Mountain Painters and a member of several juries. His studio, located at 31 route d'Eybens, in the Exposition-Bajatière district, was destroyed by a fire in 1913, and nothing remained of his works (drawings, paintings and manuscripts) that were stored there. He resumed his work by painting the Oisans, Switzerland and Mont Blanc massifs, in order to exhibit at the Paris, Grenoble and Lyon Salons until his death on 26 July 1924. He is buried in the Saint-Roch cemetery in Grenoble. With his master, Abbé Guétal, Bertier was one of the eminent members of the École dauphinoise, initiated by Jean Achard, and specialising in mountain landscapes, presented in a grandiose and spectacular manner. Bertier was both a realist painter and a painter in search of the spectacular. Thus, his work is halfway between academicism and audacity: the production and composition of his paintings demonstrate a certain academicism, but his technique and working methods are completely modern. From the start, Bertier adopted a particularly recognisable spirited touch. Small impastos punctuate the surface of the pictorial layer in dynamic touches. This random and spontaneous style shows the audacity of the painter who moves away from the academic tradition. His style lies in the colours he chooses and the precision of his atmospheres. Generally speaking, it is the bright colours that characterise his work. This search for the spectacular effect places Bertier in a certain romantic, even impressionist tradition. In seeking to transcribe the extraordinary effects, he moves away from the simple objective description of a place. He does not limit himself to an observation, but he has the desire to stage nature, in what it has of spectacular, dramatic or poetic. Canvas and frame in very good condition. Two slight small losses.