Seascape at Sunset, 1965

Artwork Analysis – Seascape at Sunset, 1965 © messmer foundation

André Evard’s landscape painting captivates not only with its originality but also, and above all, with its versatile and impressive color palette. Art critic Jean-Marie Nussbaum not only praised Evard’s “open-minded spirit” but also, owing to his sense of color, described the artist as a “jeweler of painting.” Landscape painting is a recurring theme throughout the entire oeuvre of the Swiss artist André Evard, making it a significant component of his artistic expression.

André Evard was born in 1876 in Renan, Bernese Jura, and passed away in Le Locle in 1972 at the age of 96. After his father’s early death, he moved with his mother, Marie Evard, to La Chaux-de-Fonds in the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel. Despite extended stays in Paris between 1923 and 1927, where he gained significant recognition at the Salon d’Automne and Salon des Indépendants, and where he once again intensively engaged with old and modern masters and met artists such as Georges Braque, Robert Delaunay, and Theo van Doesburg, Evard always returned to his homeland. There, he consistently drew inspiration from the surrounding nature.

La Chaux-de-Fonds, along with Biel and Le Locle, is one of Switzerland’s most renowned watchmaking cities, which is why Evard learned the craft of enameling during his training. La Chaux-de-Fonds is located at an altitude of approximately 1,000 meters above sea level, making it one of Europe’s highest-situated cities. From this elevation, Evard was particularly fascinated by the play of light that presented itself to him during sunrises and sunsets, which became one of the most important sources of inspiration for the artist.

“Seascape at Sunset” was created in 1965 and depicts precisely this fascinating play of light that the artist so often observed and incorporated into his work.

The painting is executed in oil on hardboard and measures 32 x 46 cm. The dominant colors are various shades of red and yellow, which gain a distinct contrast from the blue of the lake and the two small blue clouds.

The painting is divided into two planes. While in the foreground one sees a dark, yet flowery bank with four bare, thin tree trunks, the background is dominated by the depiction of the sky. Behind the blue lake, a mountain range stretches across the entire horizon. It is highly probable that this is the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau mountain range, which Evard frequently painted, as well as the underlying Lake Thun, which could also be depicted here. The silhouette of the mountain scenery marks the horizon while Lake Thun shimmers in various shades of blue.

In Evard’s late work, elements of Pointillism, Expressionism, and Art Nouveau can be found in his figurative works, showcasing his extensive artistic range. The depictions of nature and the colors of nature bear witness to the Swiss artist’s intense emotionality.

In this work, one clearly recognizes Evard’s concrete-constructive style, which the artist discovered for himself as early as the 1930s. Due to his early concrete-constructive works, André Evard is considered the pioneer of Swiss Modernism.

The painting features an axially symmetrical composition. This is particularly evident in the two tree trunks placed on either side, as well as in the two small blue clouds floating in the reddish-yellow sky at the center of the image axis. The distances to the two inner tree trunks are identical.

The cloud formations above the two blue clouds are also arranged axially symmetrically on the right and left sides. The space occupied by the lake roughly corresponds to the area of uniform yellow coloration above the mountain range.

The figurative work, which initially appears to be an arbitrary landscape section, reveals itself as a thoroughly constructed composition that exhibits strong constructivist features and unites the two styles that Evard masterfully commanded in one work.

(Katharina Sagel)