Alexandre Calame

Alexandre Calame

Alexandre Calame (May 28, 1810 – March 19, 1864), was a Swiss painter.

He was born in Arabie, at the time belonging to Corsier-sur-Vevey, today a part of Vevey. He was the son of a skillful marble worker in Vevey, but because his father lost the family fortune, Calame could not concentrate on art, but rather he was forced to work in a bank from the age of 15. When his father fell from a building and then died, it was up to the young Calame to provide for his mother.

In his spare time he began to practice drawing small views of Switzerland. In 1829 he met his patron, the banker Diodati, who made it possible for him to study under landscape painter François Diday. After a few months he decided to devote himself fully to art.

In 1835 he began exhibiting his Swiss-Alps and forest paintings in Paris and Berlin. He became quite well known, especially in Germany, although Calame was more a drawer than an illustrator. In 1842 he went to Paris and displayed his works "Mont Blanc", the "Jungfrau", the "Brienzersee", the "Monte Rosa" and "Mont Cervin".

He went to Italy in 1844 and brought back from Rome and Naples countless paintings, among them one of the ruins of Paestum (in the city museum in Leipzig). He showed that he was capable of understanding Italian nature; but the Alps remained his speciality.

The glaciers, emerald-green, white foaming mountain water, which split the trees during the storm, and the whipped clouds, the multi-colored rocks, half masked from fog, in the rays of the gleaming sun, are those things, which he knew to be true to nature. We still call them the "Handeckfall" from Bernese upper country, in Tirol, Lake Lucerne, the forest tower (in the urban museum of Leipzig), the forest stream (Dresdener gallery) etc.

One of his most ingenious works is the representation of the four seasons and times of the day in four landscapes, a spring morning in the south, a summer midday in the Nordic flatlands, an Autumn evening, and a winter night on a mountain. He became popular with these large works, and his popularity grew with smaller pieces and lithographies, namely 18 studies of Lauterbrunnen and Meiringen and the 24 sheets of Alpine passes. These were widespread in France, England, and Germany and are still today used to teach this style of painting.

He died in Menton.

An exhibition featuring more than thirty of Calame's paintings was held at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts in 2006.

elected works

* "Blick von Petit Saconnex auf Genf und den Montblanc", 1834, Leinwand, 31×44 cm. (Winterthur, Stiftung Oskar Reinhart)
* "Die Tempelruinen von Paestum", 1847, Leinwand, 195×260 cm.(Leipzig, Museum of Art)

External links

*HDS|21996
*SIKART|4000036


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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Alexandre Calame — Schweizer Landschaft …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Alexandre Calame — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Calame (homonymie). Alexandre Calame …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Alexandre Calame — Paisaje suizo por Alexandre Calame Alexandre Calame (28 de mayo de 1810 – 19 de marzo de 1864) fue un pintor suizo. Nació en Arabie, que en este momento perteneció a Corsier sur Vevey, hoy parte de Vevey. Fue hijo de un trabajador calificado de… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Calame — ist der Familienname folgender Personen: Alexandre Calame (1810–1864), Schweizer Maler Claude Calame (* 1943), Schweizer Gräzist, Semiotiker und Kulturanthropologe Gustav Calame (1830–1905), deutscher Reichsgerichtsrat Henri Calame (1867–1936),… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Calame (homonymie) — Cette page d’homonymie répertorie les différents sujets et articles partageant un même nom. Calame peut désigner : le calame, roseau taillé en pointe dont on se sert pour l écriture. un patronyme : Alexandre Calame (1810 1864), peintre… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Calame — (spr. lām ), Alexandre, schweizer. Maler, geb. 28. Mai 1810 als Sohn eines geschickten Marmorarbeiters in Vevey, gest. 19. März 1864 in Mentone, trat mit 15 Jahren in ein Bankgeschäft ein, mußte aber, als sein Vater bald darauf starb, zur… …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Calame — (spr. lahm), Alexandre, schweiz. Landschaftsmaler, geb. 28. Mai 1810 zu Vevey, gest. 19. März 1864 zu Mentone. Meister in der Darstellung großartiger Alpenbilder: Monte Rosa, Vierwaldstätter See, Eichen im Sturm (1842, Leipzig); Lithographien und …   Kleines Konversations-Lexikon

  • Calame —   [ka lam], Alexandre, schweizerischer Maler, Lithograph und Radierer, * Vevey 28. 5. 1810, ✝ Menton 17. 3. 1864; galt als bedeutendster Alpenmaler seiner Zeit.   …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Jean-Baptiste Calame — Jean Baptiste Calame, né à Genève le 7 octobre 1843 et mort dans la même 24 février 1919[1] , est un peintre et graveur suisse. Biographie Jean Baptiste Calame est le fils du peintre Alexandre Calame dont il fut l élève. Il… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Калям — (Alexandre Calame) замечательный швейцарский пейзажист (1810 64). Происходя из бедного семейства, К., не окончив курса в школе, где он обучался, поступил 14 15 лет в банкирскую контору и через два года после того, лишившись отца, стал заниматься… …   Энциклопедический словарь Ф.А. Брокгауза и И.А. Ефрона

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