Camille BARTHELEMY (1890-1961): « Couple in a village in Aveyron »

Very beautiful work by the best Gaumese landscape painter of the 20th century

Camille Barthélemy (1890-1961) is a Belgian artist, born in Saint-Mard (Virton) on November 28, 1890 and died on January 12, 1961 in his native village.

Engraver (drypoint), painter (oil, watercolor) and designer, he lived and worked in Chiny and Chameleux to be as close to the nature that he sought to restore.

His drawing teacher at the local college, Nestor Outer, noticed his gift for drawing very early on and encouraged him to pursue artistic studies. From 1906 to 1914, he attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels and made his debut with decorative painters. He practiced painting from 1916, but also devoted himself to teaching drawing at the Middle School of Schaerbeek and Diest.

Attracted first by Flemish landscapes and impressionism, he gradually returned to painting the Ardennes in strong colors and geometric shapes. The exhibition L'Ardenne sous la neige (Brussels, 1931) established him as one of the best painters in the region. However, he moved away from it and settled in Chiny, in a house that he had acquired in 1922 with Irène Fech, a teacher in Arlon whom he had married in 1920, and devoted himself to painting Gaumes landscapes.

Mentioned in the BASII and in Two Centuries of Signatures of Belgian Artists