Lot 259 D

“Colour should not be made the primary object of consideration, the eye should only gently caress it. All attention should be devoted to form. You have to establish a connection between yourself and form: place yourself in agreement with it.” (Mela Muter, cited in exhib. cat. Mela Muter: Retrospektiv-Ausstellung, Galerie Gmurzynska, Cologne 1967, n. p.).
This “incidental comment” (as it is described in the Cologne exhibition catalogue) handed down from Mela Muter deals with the aims of her own painting and makes immediate sense for the viewer of our landscape from the Provence. Muter, whose painting had already celebrated major successes in Europe and the US during her own lifetime, has succeeded in using a finely tempered tonality to transfer the mild atmosphere of this little town on to the canvas. In addition to several contours added in colour, she has repeatedly sketched the forms of the landscape over outline-like blank spaces in which the bare canvas can be seen. She has established a chromatic contrast between the ringing blue of the Alps on the horizon and the warm brown and green of the village. In this way, Muter has achieved precisely the airy chromatic effect articulated at the outset: in spite of its bold shades of green, brown and blue, the image presents itself to viewers as anything but raucous and gently caresses their eye like the light of southern France.