Fernand PONTHIER (1885-1952): "Farm in Ardenne » painting oil on canvas

Fernand Joseph PONTHIER was born in Comblain-au-Pont (BE) on March 29, 1885 and passed away on November 20, 1952, in Hamoir (BE), where he had taken up residence. Inspired and trained by Richard Heintz, of whom he became a friend, he was passionate about painting that he practised intensely from 1914 to his death in 1952. Like other little-known artists who benefitted from the advice of the Master of Sy, for example Albert Sirtaine, Georges Ista, Elysée Fabry, Arthur Zeippen or Pol-François Mathieu, Fernand Ponthier belongs to the informal Liège School of Landscape, an expression under which we sometimes include post-impressionist painters, mainly landscapers, from the end of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century. In this sense, the Hamoirian artist has chosen to remain on the margins of the great currents that have feverished painting during the decades in which he practised his art: Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Surrealism,... He has limited his abundant production to oil painting and rare watercolours and gouaches. He seems to have only exceptionally approached the drawing. His favourite subjects are white water and the rocks of the Liège rivers, mainly the Ourthe and its tributaries as well as the Fagne, the Haute Ardenne and, during holidays, the landscapes of the south of France. He also focussed on housing, particularly half-timbered houses, chapels, mills and regional farms. Ponthier was clearly inspired by Heintz's large-touch technique, but is by no means a pure copier. He has developed an interesting artistic personality. His colours rarely have the intensity and light of those of his mentor. His paintings do not sweat the same exuberance. It is the emotion unleashed by the landscapes, with the atmosphere changing according to the seasons and hours, that was his ariane's thread. In its rivers, for example, it has been able to finely capture the breath and whims of light in the seasons. (wallonica.org)