Le Cauchemar

Sold with a photo-certificate from the Fondation Émile Chambon.

'... while figurative, the art of Chambon does not merely adhere to tradition. It is the art of a man, a man who had been invited down contemporary paths and who had deliberately renounced the escapes which they allow. He created a dense oeuvre, captivating, that has sometimes been compared to that of Balthus, where the temptations of escaping through abstract were overcome with sovereign control' (Anne-Marie Burger).

A great admirer of Gustave Courbet, Caravaggio and Felix Vallotton, Swiss artist Émile Chambon remained a figurative painter throughout his life. He always refused to be part of a particular artistic group and developed his own unique aesthetic.

Chambon constructs in his paintings a unique, surreal universe, depicting palpable atmospheres of tension, executed with precision and rigour. There is an apparent dualism in his subjects which are at once silent and dangerous, sinister and sweet, intimate and public, with shadows and inferences revealing unexpected clues in each composition.

Dreams and a surreal sense of voyeurism recur as themes in Chambon’s oeuvre. The tightly constructed composition, light, shadow, flat planes and the dark and rich palette are all carefully chosen by Chambon to communicate the tense atmosphere, an encounter that remains unexplained.

This group of paintings were painted in the 1950s and 1960s when Émile Chambon’s style reached its maturity and became recognised by the public, having major exhibitions in Switzerland and Paris. This group comes to sale from the same New York collection.