Alexandre Perrier (1862-1936): Geneva
Olivier Varenne Art Moderne & Contemporain is proud to announce an exhibition of 19 works by Alexandre Perrier (1862–1936), comprising 7 oil paintings on canvas, 5 pastels and 7 drawings. The exhibition is Perrier’s first commercial gallery presentation in forty years, offering a rare opportunity to rediscover the Geneva-born artist whose work ranks among the most evocative and poetic representations of Alpine and Lake Geneva scenery of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Landscape was Perrier’s great obsession. Throughout his career, he returned repeatedly to the Alps, Mont Blanc, the Salève, Lake Geneva and Praz-de-Lys, capturing not simply their appearance but their shifting light, atmosphere and emotional resonance. Like Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918), his near contemporary, Perrier moved beyond the descriptive traditions of Swiss landscape painting, seeking instead to distil nature into something more essential and expressive. Where earlier Swiss landscape painters often celebrated alpine grandeur and human endeavour, the two stripped the landscape back to its essential elements, and Perrier’s frequently uninhabited compositions in particular evoke silence, solitude and the enduring poetry of nature.
ALEXANDRE PERRIER, THE FOREST, OIL ON CANVAS, 115 X 130CM.
Perrier did not paint en plein air in the strict Impressionist sense. Instead, he made sketches, sometimes annotated, during solitary excursions into the mountains before transforming them into paintings in his studio. This process allowed him to distil not only the forms and colours of the landscape, but the emotional experience of being within it.
Works such as Vue du Mont-Blanc, where the mountain emerges from atmospheric haze in shimmering light, and Le Salève, with its articulated mineral strata and rhythmic brushwork, reveal his search for something beyond topography: the timeless essence and spirit of nature itself.
ALEXANDRE PERRIER, ÉTUDES CHROMATIQUES DE PAYSAGE, PASTEL ON GREY GREEN PAPER, 31 X 24CM.
A restless and inventive artist, Perrier continually explored the expressive potential of his materials. His pastels are particularly striking for their bold use of colour and extraordinary luminosity, their freshness and vibrancy lending them a remarkably modern quality. When figures appear, they are carefully integrated into the landscape, reflecting Perrier’s sensitivity to the complex relationship between humanity and the natural world.
Celebrated during his lifetime, Perrier exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants, the Swiss National Exhibitions and the Exposition Universelle in Paris, while playing an active role in Geneva’s artistic community. Major retrospectives, including those at the Kunstmuseum Solothurn and the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Geneva, in 2008–2009, reaffirmed his importance within Swiss landscape painting. The present exhibition marks the first dedicated presentation of Perrier’s work in Geneva since the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire’s retrospective over 17 years ago, and offers a timely opportunity to encounter the singular vision of an artist whose deeply personal interpretation of nature continues to resonate today.
ALEXANDRE PERRIER, SANS TITRE (SALÈVE), 1898, 49 `x 65CM.