Vezin, Frederick (1859-1933), Autumn Landscape in Sunlight, 1905

Frederick Vezin(1859 Torresdale Philadelphia - 1933 Düsseldorf), Autumn Landscape in the Sunlight , oil on canvas, mounted on cardboard, 32 x 41 cm (inside measurement), 44 x 51 cm (frame), signed and dates lower right "F. Vezin. [19]05".

- Cardboard slightly curved, small inconspicuous retouch at the centre of the upper edge of the picture.

Exposé as PDF

- Indian Summer -

Although the painting appears to be a sketch, Frederick Vezin considered it to be a finished work of art, as evidenced by his signature on the lower right. And it is precisely this sketchy quality that leads to an understanding of the painting, which was certainly created in the landscape itself: the natural phenomena were to be depicted artistically at the moment of their observation. This is not done by meticulously sketching nature, but - and here Vezin follows the teaching of French Impressionism - by illustrating nature in its visual fullness. The artist's eye is, as it were, immersed in the visuality of nature, which is made visible by his hand. The painting is therefore not a reflection of the landscape, but its artistic intensification.

This intensification also includes the fact that the foreground of the painting - corresponding to the field of vision - eludes a detail-oriented close-up view. Instead, the spatula-like application of paint, the vertical structure of which corresponds to the structure of the floral growth, has the effect of making nature tangible in its colourful substance.

At the same time, the foreground, which remains indeterminate in its concrete objectivity, creates an atmospheric space that connects with the actual protagonist of the picture, the group of trees, which flares up in shades of red and brown. Here, too, the leaves are more speckled than clearly outlined. It is precisely this 'sketchiness' that opens up a visual experience that makes the landscape accessible in its visual fullness, thus revealing its essence.

In addition to this abundance, the landscape is presented as a structure of order in that the composition of the picture makes the composition of the landscape visible. For example, the group of trees forms a distinct dark green shadow, which is repeated in the shadows cast by the trees behind it. A patterned diagonal axis is created in the picture, which is composed in this way by the landscape itself.

Strictly speaking, this is a cultivated landscape: a fence at the bottom and a low stone wall at the top, running from left to right, are two elements that also have a strong compositional effect. And on the top of the hill, a stone house is embedded in the landscape as the brightest surface in the picture. Nature and culture here form a harmonious synthesis, giving the painting an Arcadian touch.

In order to give the landscape as much space as possible, the horizon line is raised, but the design of the sky is also crucial. The clouds, combined with the shapes of the trees, create a bright blue sky. To the European eye, such a sky is reminiscent of a summer landscape. Accordingly, within the seasonal cycle, the blue sky is reserved for summer, and French Impressionism is also primarily an ode to summer. In Vezin's painting, however, the brilliant blue sky stands above an autumnal landscape, some of the trees even defoliated. It can therefore be assumed that the painting was made not in Europe but in the United States, and that it illustrates the proverbial Indian summer, making Frederick Vezin a pioneer of American landscape painting.

About the artist

Frederick Vezin was the son of a French immigrant to the United States and a German-born mother. This predestined him to promote artistic exchange between the old and new worlds. Having spent part of his schooling in Germany, in 1876, at the age of 20, he enrolled at the Düsseldorf Academy of Art, where he studied with Peter Janssen the Elder, Eduard von Gebhardt and Wilhelm Sohn, among others. He graduated in 1883, settled in Munich and returned to Düsseldorf in 1895, where he lived until his death in 1933.

A native of the United States, he travelled to the country frequently and became a popular portrait and society painter. His artistic talent, however, was most evident in his landscape paintings. Trained in French Impressionism, he developed a virtuoso use of colour and a free brushwork that remained tied to the landscape motif, opening up the landscape itself in a new way. Frederick Vezin turned his attention primarily to the landscape of his homeland, becoming a pioneer of modern American landscape painting.

"Frederick Vezin, born in Philadelphia in 1859, is thoroughly modern in his colouristic approach, but also in his choice of motifs [...]. [He created works] that betrayed a great understanding of landscape".

Friedrich Saarschmidt

Selection of public collections that own paintings by Frederick Vezin:

Stadtmuseum Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf , Künstlerverein Malkasten Düsseldorf , Kölnisches Stadtmuseum

Selective Bibliography

Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. Begründet von Ulrich Thieme und Felix Becker, Leipzig 1940.

Friedrich von Boetticher: Malerwerke des 19. Jahrhunderts. Beitrag zur Kunstgeschichte. Band 2/2, Dresden 1901.

Friedrich Schaarschmidt: Zur Geschichte der Düsseldorfer Kunst. Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf 1902.

Hans Paffrath (Hrsg.): Lexikon der Düsseldorfer Malerschule 1819–1918. Band 3: Nabert–Zwecker, München 1998.