FRENCH WATERCOLOURIST PAUL GUELPA (1899-1995)

Hi all,

Does anyone have any information about French watercolourist Paul Guelpa (biography, sold works, etc.). I have only found one record of sale on Etsy and everything else is images on Pinterest or written in French or other languages besides English.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

https://www.pinterest.com/marcelvanbellinghen/peinture-paul-guelpa-peintre/

 

I don't know if you've already found this but... a biography. In French but you can run it through Google Translate.

http://paulguelpa.free.fr/

Debora

 

Here is one for sale:

https://www.leboncoin.fr/ad/collection/2965899394

 

Auction lot, no photo but description and estimate:

https://www.osenat.com/lot/8403/1636976-p-paul-guelpa-ecole-francaise-xxeme-vue-de-montmartre

 

I'm unable to gain access on both my laptop and phone.

 

Looks like 90-100 US $, if I've done my conversions correctly. Seems low since one of his pieces sold on Etsy for practically $300. https://www.etsy.com/listing/652656...how_sold_out_detail=1&ref=nla_listing_details

 

The first one is a landscape with farmhouse painted in Savoie, price 39 euro.
The auction lot is a view of Montmartre, estimate 80-100 euro.

Watercolours painted in Savoie, you can click on the names of the other regions for more works:

http://darbois.francois.free.fr/aquarelles/guelpa/bauges.html

 

I think the Etsy one is too high. The subject is pretty run of the mill by European standards, and the quality is good but not excellent or special.

 

http://paulguelpa.free.fr/

Google translate is also having technical difficulties, but I was able to find a "translate this page" feature. Here's what I got:

Paul GUELPA was born on February 12, 1899, in Chambots-Allières in the Rhône region, into a family of Piedmontese origin north of Turin, above Ivrea in Camandone. His father, a building contractor, employed a decorative painter who taught young Paul the first rudiments of artistic technique.

Paul GUELPA then received lessons from the Italian painter Andoli, who introduced him to oil painting. He moved to Annecy in 1925, where he continued the family tradition as a building contractor. In 1928, he moved to Lyon, where he was able to take classes from the famous Lyon painter Antoine Barbier , who introduced him to the technique of watercolor, in which he would excel. Barbier was then one of the best artists of the "Lyonnaise school".

From 1932 to 1946, Paul GUELPA stayed in Algeria, from where he returned to settle again in Annecy. From then on, he could devote all his leisure time to his true passion: watercolor. During his family vacations and work trips, he never failed to capture some evocative landscapes, always filled with softness and a luminous charm. He painted in Alsace, Quercy, Périgord or Corrèze, as well as in the Basque Country, Landes, Provence or Brittany. All these trips enchanted him, but it was Annecy, its streets, its lake and its mountains, that he painted without stopping in spring, summer, autumn and winter, until his dying day. He returned several times a year and in each season to his familiar motifs such as the Château de Duyngt, La Tournette seen from Saint Jorioz, the chalets of Chinaillon. The morning and evening light with their golden roses makes the splendor of his watercolors, while "knowing how to compose with a rare happiness winter landscapes full of life and charm." (2)

This was the time when he went on walks with his painter friends. His trips to Haute-Savoie were countless and continued until he was very old. I had the pleasure of painting with him and my mother many times on location, and in particular in March 1992 in Chinaillon in front of the Bouts chalets for three hours under a beautiful spring sun. He was 91 years old at the time! He knew how to render "admirably snow and mist, ephemeral impressions that could be described as interior, because they go beyond the rendering of simple visual perception... He was friends with other artists who, like him, were passionate about the landscapes of Haute Savoie, such as the watercolourists Eugène BERNHARDT and Paul JACQUET (5), and represented a small school of regionalist painting that was very fashionable in the 1950s and 1960s. With his pencil, his box of paint, his brushes and his aluminium easel that he had made himself, he was always curious and hungry for light, perspectives and beautiful horizons."

Whether the sky was gray or blue, sulky or cheerful, windy or snowy, this eternal young man would go painting on location, by the lake, in the Aravis mountains to chase an image and an impression. But images all his own, watercolors "lifted" with an expert and light hand, which made him a reference among watercolorists of the mountains and the shores of Lake Annecy. The water sometimes froze on his paper and his hands had frostbite, but nothing could stop his passion and his desire to paint.



The secret of his youthful spirit and his joy of life: his painting!
At 92 years old, Paul GUELPA had remained of exemplary vitality, he was still painting the day before his death on his small kitchen table,





one of his oldest subjects from a watercolor made in 1950: the old Roman bridge near Thônes, a subject he must have done dozens of times.[/QUOTE]

 

Yes, I read it in French.