Jean Maurice Beyeler, Maison de l’Île, 1974, Oil on Canvas, Framed

His artistic career will go through five periods quite different from each other. These differences do not come from the artist’s will but from an inner evolution with transition phases.

jean beyeler was born in geneva in 1928. A painter father, a violinist uncle, a pianist aunt, his entire childhood was bathed in an artistic atmosphere to which he was very sensitive.

at eleven years old, he painted his first painting, a boat in a storm. Stormy skies, foaming waves, the silhouette of a ship propelled into the raging elements, this first work exudes an astonishing atmosphere and talent for this early age.

from the age of twenty, jean beyeler painted with more regularity. Then begins the first period, during which he is influenced by the style of his father as well as by the impressionist painters whom he greatly admires. The landscapes of the south already inspire him. The shadow and light, the vegetation, the ethereal skies, the colors of his paintings are all in finesse.

a few years later, he evolved into a new period known as “flats”, which is part of a search for simplification of style. The style is colorful, the treatment of subjects almost geometric. He then became known among genevan painters and sculptors. A prosperous era, crowned with the diday prize, the calame prize and the galerie club de genève prize. The artist is also twice winner of the geneva young painting prize (galerie motte)
but, while jean beyeler enjoyed certain success with his peers and art critics, he felt the fear of locking himself into a process. This is how the style of his painting changed radically.

this new period is marked by the artist’s attraction to the painter chagall. It therefore seems essential to him to give free rein to his imagination. Magical world full of poetry and mystery, clown emerging from a dream, wolf howling at the moon, young woman shimmering in blue against the backdrop of a sleeping city. The line becomes freer and more expressive. The artist frees himself from the constraints of figuration. The shades are close to the fundamental colors.

three exhibitions followed one another which met with little success with the public. It is a great disappointment for the painter who is going through a very difficult period in his life. His painting then becomes dark and violent, an expression of the extreme tensions that inhabit him. His style becomes very personal, expressionist. This is the so-called “black” period. This will last ten years, between thirty and forty years, during which the artist thinks that the highest expression of art is a representation of the tragic side of existence. He feels a strength within him that demands expression. He paints in a very free, strong, aggressive way at times. He paints large, dark and tormented landscapes. A snowy atmosphere with low, leaden skies, bare trees, deserted houses. The palette degrades into blacks, grays, browns and whites. The material is thick, grainy. The layers overlap like strata. The anguish is there, poignant, which seizes us at the bend of a dead end street, of buildings closed behind who knows what secret, of ghostly characters.

in 1967, at the age of forty, jean beyeler purchased a small house on the island of porquerolles, in the south of france.
jean beyeler has always felt a particular affinity for the landscapes of the south and the softness of its light. Porquerolles will be an important source of inspiration for him. Is it being immersed in nature, far from the artistic intellectual currents in which he recognizes himself less and less, is it the circumstances of his life which are improving, the artist’s painting evolves towards more calm , softness and light. A new period begins, characterized by a return to impressionism.

the palette becomes more colorful, all with subtle nuances, creating an atmosphere full of mystery.
landscapes of snow iridescent with a pale winter light, rich southern vegetation inhabited by farmhouses with sober lines, ponds reflecting the infinite gradients of the skies, bouquets with delicate flowers, modest nudes with satiny skin, the works of this period reveal the delicacy and the infinite sensitivity of their author. They are invitations to contemplate an interior landscape, a time escaped from the hustle and bustle of our world.
peaceful gentleness, poetry of silence. The tone is restrained, contained, the paintings offer themselves as confidences. Subtle links can be established with the viewer, allowing emotion to emerge, the mysterious vibration of beauty.

this is what is at the center of the artist’s quest. He will often say that he cannot explain, beyond the essential technique, what gives inspiration to a painting.

the expression of inner emotion seems essential in art: “a lot of interiority and poetry, that’s the essential thing in painting.”

over the years, jean beyeler’s work evolves towards ever more luminosity and serenity, as if the painter projected into his art the calm and beauty to which he aspires, he who will remain an anguished person, deeply concerned by suffering, the injustice and the crazy evolution of our time.

throughout his artistic career, the painter exhibited regularly in geneva galleries, but also in lausanne, bern, thun, sion and sierre.

his works appear in museums and in swiss and foreign collections.

in may 2005, at the age of 76, jean beyeler died in his house in onex. Golden wooden frame
66.5 x 85 x 3.4 cm this piece has an attribution mark,
i am sure that it is completely authentic and take full responsibility for any authenticity
issues arising from misattribution