Wilhelm Gimmi | Undated
Oil on canvas | 46.2 x 38 cm
Parisian period (1908-1940)
Characters
Inventory 07_GIM_0010 | Wilhelm Gimmi Foundation
Photo: Julien Gremaud, Vevey
Artistic features
Subject:
Symbiosis between painters and models, focused on the work, the birth of the work, symbolized here by the sketchbook.
Composition:
The characters partially overlap each other, forming a tight group, whose space and intentions are clearly established by the orientation of each person's gaze.
Medium:
From 1917 onwards, Gimmi, weary of doing things after Matisse or Picasso, nourished the ambition to set his work on a personal path that would escape fashions and manners. In his paintings, this intention is expressed in simple forms, without mannerism [...].
Laurence Rippstein, Exhibition catalogue p. 53-54
Pallet:
And these scales that belong only to him, these discreet scales playing secret melodies around a known motif.
Nesto Jacometti, Exhibition catalogue p. 95
Background
Period:
Finally, in 1919, at the age of thirty-three, Gimmi decided to face public judgment and sent his first works to the Salon d'Automne (because at that time, he would later tell me, with that sort of candid frankness that distinguishes him, his first essays were not exhibited).
He was received by the big door. Although totally unknown, the members of the placement hang his paintings on the picture rail of the main room, with Bonnard, Matisse, Segonzac, Marquet... The critics welcome him enthusiastically. He is immediately named a member of the exhibition's board of directors.
Nesto Jacometti, Exhibition catalogue p. 76
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