Palézieux (1919-2012)

Born in 1919 in Vevey, Switzerland, Gérard de Palézieux had the chance to study in Florence between 1939 and 1943. His training took place at the fountainhead of the Italian Renaissance and he acquired a sound technical grounding. On his return to Switzerland he settled near Sierre in the Valais, in a small house amongst the vines where he was to live for the rest of his life. In 1947 he began taking a keen interest in etching, relentlessly exploring its possibilities – later, he was to build a collection of the best examples from the past.

Palézieux’s drawings, prints and watercolours are linked to the work of the artists of the past. He even used antique paper to lend his work a certain age. He understood how Rembrandt, Castiglione, Canaletto or Tiepolo used etching to achieve very specific effects. He also met and became friends with Giorgio Morandi, whom he admired for his way of life and for his art. In fact, he said that he had trouble freeing himself from Morandi’s graphic vocabulary. However, soft-ground etching, aquatint and monotype led him off in another direction.

At the beginning of the 1960s, following travels in Morocco and Provence, he took up watercolour painting and developed his skill during repeated visits to Venice. The spontaneity offered by the technique gave a new turn to his art. ‘Instinctive’, ‘intuitive’, as he described himself, Palézieux stayed true to his emotions when he approached landscape painting which, along with still-life, was to remain his main subject. As he observed the relentless degradation of the places he loved, and faced an unending succession of different aesthetic styles, the artist chose to describe, without nostalgia, the essential elements of his time as they related to the constituent elements of all time.

Florian Rodari, curator of the Fondation William Cuendet, writes about Palézieux: He was painstakingly attentive to technique, yet never constrained by it. Bearing this in mind, we should chart the progress made by the printmaker from his earliest etchings, which owed a great deal to the example of Giorgio Morandi, to his final experiments with aquatint. And we should admire his varied use of the crayon, from the careful work with the pointed tip to the broad strokes of his lithographic crayon which make his skilful compositions on antique or specially prepared papers sing with light. Finally, in the watercolours, the climax of his work on paper, Palézieux captures each moment with overwhelming accuracy. The villages and landscapes of the Valais, wrapped in snow and meaningful silence, Venice and the blue mist of the lagoon, changing skies and light – the painter seems to absent himself in the manner of the artists of the Far East, leaving space to speak for itself.