The Sunflowers

Ernest Biéler was a multitalented Swiss painter, draftsman, and printmaker. In 1910, an important show opened in Neuchâtel devoted to his work, with 155 pieces exhibited at the Léopold Robert Galleries. That same year the artist executed this summery watercolor, a token of his interest in painting out of doors.

The Sunflowers depicts seasonal flowers with particular care devoted to the graphic, decorative aspect of the subject. This way of working in almost uniform areas of color in gouache or occasionally tempera while outlining all forms with a sharp neat line is typical of Biéler’s style from 1905 on. As the artist explains it, “An outline, flat tones, little modelling, clear contrasts, in short, simply the opposite of the approach that oil painting leads to.”

The masterpiece reveals the artist’s desire to focus on nature, the countryside, or scenes of rural life that have been preserved from modernity, progress, and the new industrial world. Elegantly erect before a background of hydrangeas, two sunflowers glow with a golden light. Behind them, the thick clusters of flowers extend across the picture surface like a mosaic. The petals, treated without shadows, spread upwards to where they meet the patch of blue at the top of the composition. In the treatment of both the sky and the hydrangeas, a subtle variation on the hues by deepening them to a greater or lesser degree produces a kind of vibration in the composition that adds to the musicality of the picture.

Have a calm Saturday everyone!

P.S. Guess which Sunflowers are the most renowned in art history!  :-D You are probably right! Check it here!