ZURICH.- Saint Petersburg and Savièse are a world away from each other: the emblematic Russian city is a renowned centre for the fine arts, in contrast with a tiny, humble Swiss village in a picturesque Alpine valley. Yet these two locations, along with several others, reflect the rich diversity on offer in Sotheby’s forthcoming sale of Swiss Art / Swiss Made in Zurich.

Leading the sale on June 27 will be a rare and important masterwork by Félix Vallotton, the wintry Saint Petersburg cityscape La Néva, brume légère. Alongside it, an extraordinary private collection of works from the famed ‘École de Savièse’ includes masterpieces by Ernest Biéler, the painter who led this group of artists focused on the traditions and the simplicity of rural life in Switzerland.

From the 19th century to the contemporary era, the works on offer capture a key place and time in the career of important Swiss artists, opening up a key aspect of their work. The artists’ response to their surroundings, as transposed in oils, watercolours, tempera, sculpture or photographic print, gives the viewer fascinating insight into their artistic method.

In this way, the auction in Zurich on 27 June continues Sotheby’s themed sales of Swiss Art / Swiss Made, showcasing works from a wide variety of artistic periods and movements. These are all bound together by a common thread: the enormous diversity of the country’s artistic landscape.

Ahead of the sale Co-Heads of the Swiss Art Department, Stéphanie Schleining and Urs Lanter, commented "Ten years after the sale of a prestigious École de Savièse collection, it is a privilege to have be chosen again to offer this extraordinary collection, assembled with taste by a private collector. Alongside these works, Félix Vallotton’s La Néva, brume légère unquestionably ranks among the masterpieces of the painter’s lesser-known Russian period. It is an honour for us to present these highlights to private collectors and institutions, in Switzerland and abroad."

SAINT PETERSBURG - LA NÉVA, BRUME LÉGÈRE
This superb landscape by celebrated Swiss-French painter Félix Vallotton is one of a small group of rare works completed following his visit to Russia in 1913. Adding to its rarity, the painting boasts exceptional provenance: it remained within close circles connected to the artists before entering a private collection in 1965.

As such, this absolute masterpiece is a rare discovery for the auction market. The painting will be offered on 27 June at Sotheby’s Zurich, with an estimate of CHF 1 – 1.5 million / EUR 915,000 – 1,370,000 (Lot 26).

The highly modern composition of La Néva, brume légère shows the artist tending towards abstraction. Stylistic elements such as the flat surfaces, lack of perspective and the darkly silhouetted male figure and lamp-post are reminiscent of the wood-cut technique so characteristic of Vallotton’s work.

In contrast, Vallotton’s careful attention to the nuances of colour and light in the landscape bring to mind majestic London cityscapes by Claude Monet and ethereal landscapes by Ferdinand Hodler or Giovanni Giacometti, which frequently depicted other-worldly winter scenes of cloud and fog, masterfully rendered in a range of rich blues and purples.

THE ‘ÉCOLE DE SAVIÈSE’ : AN EXTRAORDINARY PRIVATE COLLECTION
The other leading highlight of our upcoming sale is an extraordinary private collection of masterworks from the ‘École de Savièse’, led by their figurehead, Ernest Biéler, alongside works by François de Ribeaupierre, Raphy Dallèves and Charles-Clos Olsommer.

THE ÉCOLE DE SAVIÈSE
In around 1900, a group of artists named the ‘Ecole de Savièse’ or ‘Savièse School’ built itself around Biéler, who championed the rural Alpine village of Savièse in canton Valais. All of the artists shared a common iconography, strongly focused on local traditions and customs. Aimed at an urban audience, this group of artists idealized and romanticized what they had seen of the countryside.

TROIS JEUNES FILLES DE GRANOIS, 1920
In particular, Ernest Biéler’s exceptional composition, Trois jeunes filles de Granois, 1920 retains iconic status for the artist, having been referenced repeatedly and held up as a standout example showcasing the painter’s visual language and stylistic signature (Lot 41, estimate CHF 500,000 – 700,000 / EUR 457,000 – 640,000). Biéler abandoned oil painting in favour of small-scale works of a more graphic nature, which he executed in watercolour and tempera. He became focused on genre painting and works depicting everyday life. The detailed rendering of the people in his portraits sharply contrasts with the distant background.

LAKE GENEVA & THE PICTURESQUE LAVAUX REGION
Lake Geneva and its surroundings rank among the most favoured locations for artists in Switzerland, perhaps most instantly recognisable in the work of Ferdinand Hodler. But before him, this part of the country has inspired artists to create a wide variety of landscapes, from the majestic to the domestic.

The auction on 27 June will include three works by Lausanne-born pre-impressionist painter, François Bocion. Leading them is an impressive and lightfilled work, Chemin dans les vignes (Lot 6, estimate CHF 100,000 – 150,000 / EUR 91,500 - 150,000), which depicts a young winemaker in the region of Lavaux, above Lake Geneva on a sunny day. Alongside this work, two further paintings by Bocion show seaside scenes in Italy.

The idyllic shores of Lake Geneva feature again in the work of Auguste Baud-Bovy, with Paysage de Port-Tunnel (Lot 10, estimate CHF 40,000 – 60,000 / EUR 36,500 – 55,000). The beautifully composed outdoor scene depicts members of the family of Henri Dunant, founder of the Red Cross, in the family home in the Geneva countryside.

Finally, Lake Geneva will be presented in our upcoming auction as a source of inspiration for foreign painters, who have sought out its shores as an iconic Swiss landscape. Lot 8 was painted by the Danish artist Peder Mønk Mønsted, who travelled extensively during his later years and spent a great deal of time in Switzerland. An exquisite example of the painter’s ‘Swiss period’, View of Vevey, 1887 illustrates François Bocion’s influence on this Scandinavian artist (Lot 8, estimate CHF 8,000 – 12,000 / EUR 7,300 – 11,000).

OSCHWAND
The small village of Oschwand close to Bern has become synonymous with the painter Cuno Amiet. He moved to the village, bought a house there and set up his workshop, and this little corner of Switzerland was to be his source of inspiration for most of his career.

Two lots in the upcoming sale show the influence of place and atmosphere on the painter: Dekorationen Blumenfrauen I, 1914, brings together the iconography and stylistic preoccupations of the artists during this period, and the symbolic female figure is reminiscent of Amiet’s portraits of his wife Anna, painted in their garden in Oschwand (Lot 22, estimate CHF 150,000 – 200,000 / EUR 137,000 – 183,000).

Blühende Bäume, 1922 (right), with its abundant spring flowers, offers a glimpse into the village’s picturesque landscape and the surroundings which were to prove so nourishing for Amiet’s work (Lot 56, estimate CHF 100,000 – 150,000 / EUR 91,500 – 137,000).

ALPINE VALLEYS : THE ENGADINE
The rugged, unspoilt landscapes of Eastern Switzerland have also formed the basis for numerous key works by major artists including Giovanni Giacometti and Giovanni Segantini.

The admiration which many artists held for the majesty of Switzerland’s Alpine valleys can be seen in a colourful and luminous landscape of Lake Sils and Piz Lagrev, by Giovanni’s son, Gottardo Segantini: Engadiner Landschaft im Frühsommer, 1945 (Lot 19, estimate CHF 150,000 – 200,000 / EUR 137,000 – 183,000). Gottardo inherited his father’s deep love for the valleys of his birth, and once again the country’s best-loved artists helped to elevate these beautiful places in the nation’s consciousness.

BEYOND SWITZERLAND’S BORDERS
The June sale in Zurich will also include a section of artworks from one of the most important private collections of Swiss Contemporary Art. The selection includes works by Gottfried Honegger, Miriam Cahn, Peter Fischli & David Weiss, and Sylvie Fleury – all of whom very much in demand on the international market as well as within Swiss borders.

Standing out in particular, Swiss artist Balthasar Burkhard’s large-scale photograph, Rio Negro, 2002 is a representation of one of his most widely recognised and sought-after non-Swiss subjects. The extraordinary evocative qualities of the work once again offer the viewer a powerful sense of place and atmosphere (Lot 109, estimate CHF 12,000 – 18,000 / EUR 11,000 – 16,500).