painting of a woman smoking a pipe in front of a body of water
Premium DognyAuction

15 - Charles Clos OLSOMMER (1883–1966), “Young Man from Valais wi…
See original version (French)

Estimate CHF 2,000 - CHF 3,000
Sale commission
Description
Charles Clos OLSOMMER (1883–1966), “Young Man from Valais with a Pipe”, Watercolour and pencil with white chalk highlights on paper, signed lower right. H. 47 x 36 cm C. C. Olsommer Museum, Veyras, Collection, ‘Landscapes’ section: ‘After his years of study, Olsommer became less interested in the immediate, realistic depiction of nature than in its symbolic or mystical significance.’ Laurent Sester, “Charles-Clos Olsommer”, in Pascal Griener and Pascal Ruedin (eds.), The Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts in Sion, 1947–1997. The Birth and Development of a Public Collection in Valais: Contexts and Models, Sion, Cantonal Museums, 1997, pp. 278–281, in particular pp. 280–281. See also Charles-Clos Olsommer, Imaginary Landscape with a Green Figure, undated [after 1936], chalk, Indian ink and watercolour on coloured paper, 49 × 37.5 cm, Valais Art Museum, Sion, inv. BA 740. Charles-Clos Olsommer, Portrait of a Bearded Man Among the Branches, 1928 [dated MCMXXVIII], watercolour and pastel on paper, signed and dated, 42 × 36 cm, Geneva Auctions, sale of 1 May 2024, lot 22. For Olsommer, art was as much a spiritual exercise as it was a field of artistic exploration. In his most accomplished works, might we not see an attempt to synthesise linear idealism—inherited both from Art Nouveau and from a certain Swiss non-realist tradition—with the sumptuous, precious, abundant and symbolic art inspired by the East? This is what he devoted himself to in the solitude of the Valais, a place sought out in those very same years by Rainer Maria Rilke, the poet, and Rudolf Kassner, the essayist, driven by a similar fascination with the mysteries of the soul and a shared metaphysical unease. What did Olsommer paint? What did he draw or engrave? Numerous portraits; portraits of children, women, adolescents, and self-portraits. One senses in them a constant striving to transcend naturalism, to wrest the subject from their earthly individuality, and to rediscover, beneath the mask of the face and the everyday gesture, the true Human Being. At times, the mystical significance of these spiritual portraits is emphasised by a rocky landscape, whilst at other times, an almost oriental magic of colour is added to the arabesque of the lines. Charles-Clos Olsommer’s work is strongly imbued with pantheism, which encompasses nature and humankind within a single whole. This philosophy is reflected in his portraits of great psychological tension, such as that depicted in this young man from Valais with a pipe. The similarity with the 1929 ‘Man from Valais with a Pipe’, of almost identical dimensions (48.5 × 37 cm), as well as with the ‘Portrait of a Bearded Man amongst the Branches’, signed and dated MCMXXVIII (42 × 36 cm), allows us to suggest a date for this work of around 1928–1930. Finally, the *Imaginary Landscape with a Green Figure*, dating from after 1936 and held at the Valais Art Museum, represents the culmination of this intertwining of figure and landscape.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
About the sale BACK TO AUCTION — The start of the new auction season
Auction location
Auction time 09/08/2026 at 2:30 PM
Ref. : PIBZ21
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
You may also like