Fernand Ponthier, "Pines and Calvary in the Ardèche," oil painting on canvas

Fernand Joseph Ponthier was born in Comblain-au-Pont (BE) on March 29, 1885, and died on November 20, 1952, in Hamoir (BE), where he had made his home. Inspired and trained by Richard Heintz, with whom he became friends, he developed a passion for painting, which he practiced intensely from 1914 until his death in 1952. Like other lesser-known artists who benefited from the advice of the "Master of Sy," for example Albert Sirtaine, Georges Ista, Elysée Fabry, Arthur Zeippen, and Pol-François Mathieu, Fernand Ponthier belongs to the informal Liège School of Landscape, an expression sometimes used to group together post-Impressionist painters, primarily landscape artists, from the late 19th to the mid-20th century. In this sense, the Hamoir-born artist chose to remain outside the major movements that swept through painting during the decades in which he practiced his art: Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, and so on. He limited his prolific output to oil paintings and a few watercolors and gouaches. He seems to have only exceptionally turned to drawing. His preferred subjects were the rushing waters and rocks of the Liège rivers, primarily the Ourthe and its tributaries, as well as the Fagne, the High Ardennes, and, during holidays, the landscapes of southern France. He also focused on dwellings, particularly half-timbered houses, chapels, mills, and regional farms. Ponthier was clearly inspired by Heintz's broad-brush technique, but he was by no means a mere copyist. He developed a compelling artistic personality. His colors rarely possess the intensity and luminosity of his mentor's. His paintings do not exude the same exuberance. It is the emotion conveyed by the landscapes, with their atmosphere shifting with the seasons and the time of day, that has been his guiding thread. In his rivers, for example, he has skillfully captured the breath and the whims of light throughout the seasons. (wallonica.org)