Jean-Baptiste Olive

French, (1848-1936)

Provenance

Private Collection, Texas. Gladwell & Patterson, London; acquired from the above in 2018.

Raymond Wintz

French, (1884-1956)

Celebrated as a “painter of light”, Joseph Raymond Wintz enjoyed a reputation as one of the finest artists working in France in the early twentieth century. Wintz’ skill and complete command of his palette set him aside from his contemporaries. He gained a firm appreciation by critics and collectors as a leading painter of the Brittany coastline and was renowned for his charming window and balcony scenes bathed in sunshine which perfectly embody memories of holidays by the coast.

Following his education, Wintz rejected the academic styles of his father and professors and like many of his contemporaries, decided to pursue his passion for painting outdoors ‘en plein air’ in the manner of the Impressionists. This technique demanded a free and spontaneous style of painting in order to catch the rapid changes in outdoor light. Wintz’ skill allowed him to extract the colours and shapes as well as the fragrances of nature, putting the total ambiance and experience directly onto the canvas. In a few swift brushstrokes, Wintz captured the very essence of Breton life.

Amongst Wintz’ most popular subjects are his delicately posed window and balcony scenes which allowed the artist to combine an interior and exterior setting within a single composition. This motif dates back to Renaissance traditions but was brought to the forefront of the twentieth century artistic imagination by Henri Matisse. Matisse exploited the window’s intrinsic duality - at once an opening and a barrier - to generate a tension between illusionistic depth and modernist flatness. Wintz’ interiors are simplistic, and he focuses the attention on the window or doorframe by placing a vase of vibrantly coloured flowers on a table or a windowsill providing a focus to the view beyond. Outside, boats sway in the quiet fishing ports and brightly coloured sails appear far out to sea on the horizon as Breton figures pass by bathed in the warm sunshine of a summer’s day. The delicate balance between the interior and exterior of these charming paintings celebrate, with arresting spontaneity, the warmth and brilliance of a Breton ‘room with a view’.

Perhaps Wintz’ best known painting is his 1924 work The Blue Door . Still in print after nearly a century, it conveys the artist’s most famous motifs: a vase containing geraniums or hydrangeas next to a subtly lit doorway overlooking a port. Painted in the Breton port of Döelan, the work would fully cement Wintz’ connection to the Breton coast. The success of The Blue Door would prompt Wintz to produce a similar image for the ‘Paint it Yourself Art Program’ popular in 1950s America. The artist would return to this motif throughout his career, and one of the most notable examples of these is The Green Door, Brittany

From 1951 to the present day, our gallery's historic archives reveal the unfaltering demand for Wintz’ exquisite Brittany landscapes and window scenes. Gladwell & Patterson has both an outstanding library of his work and a highly cultivated knowledge of his practice.

Golfe de Saint Tropez, Côte d'Azur

Oil on Canvas

54 x 65 cms / 21¼" x 25½"

Provenance

Private Collection, UK. Gladwell & Co., London; acquired in 2022.

The Green Door, Brittany

Oil on Canvas

53 x 64 cms / 21" x 25"

Raymond Wintz

French, (1884-1956)

Provenance

Private Collection, UK.

Gladwell & Co., London; acquired in 2006.

Private Collection, UK; acquired from the above in 2007.

Gladwell & Patterson, London; acquired from the above in 2022.

Bord de la Mer

Oil on Canvas

53 x 63.5 cms / 21" x 25"

Raymond Wintz

French, (1884-1956)

Provenance

Private Collection, France. Gladwell & Patterson, London; acquired from the above in 2021.