LE MONT VENTOUX PAR PAUL SURTEL

PAUL SURTEL (1893-1985)
Le Mont Ventoux (1 911 m)
France

In "Le Mont Ventoux", 1954, Huile sur carton, Collection particulière, Suisse

La montagne
Le Mont Ventoux (1 911 m), Ventor en latin, est situé dans le département français du Vaucluse (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur). Il mesure environ 25 kilomètres de long sur un axe est-ouest pour 15 kilomètres de large sur un axe nord-sud. Surnommé le Géant de Provence, il est le point culminant des Monts du Vaucluse, l'ultime chaînon des Alpes du Sud et le plus haut sommet du Vaucluse. Son isolement géographique le rend visible sur de grandes distances.

Le peintre
Paul Surtel est un peintre et épistolier français, fils d'une famille de cafetiers et restaurateurs vivant en région parisienne. Fernand Maillaud, le "bon maître", peintre paysagiste, très bon ami du père de Paul, l'initie très tôt à la peinture. En 1904, Paul Surtel monte à Paris, au lycée Charlemagne et aux Arts Décoratifs, mais surtout à l'école buissonnière, visitant musées et expositions dans les galeries de Paris au lieu d'aller à l'école ! Il se passionne alors pour Rembrandt et surtout Corot (qui l'influencera beaucoup).
A la fin de la Première Guerre mondiale, il est enrôlé comme artilleur (début 1917). De Seine et Marne en Lorraine, Belgique, Somme, il passe d'offensive en cantonnements. Puis il se laisse reprendre par la nature, dessine, laisse l'émotion guider sa main, le métier s'acquérant à force d'attention et de travail.
Démobilisé à Hyères, Paul trouve un métier de contremaître forestier dans le Var, et découvre la nature provençale qui deviendra la source de son œuvre et le fera connaître comme un "peintre régionaliste", étiquette assez péjorative à porter en France jusqu'à très récemment. En 1937, lors d'une de ses premières expositions à Oran (Algérie, alors département français) Paul Surtel rencontre Elia Duc, jeune institutrice dans une petite ville algérienne. Ils se marient en 1939. S'ensuivent 48 années de création passionnée et de bonheur, notamment à Peipin, minuscule village des Alpes de Haute Provence où le couple s'installe. Ses toiles rayonnent de tendresse, de légèreté, d'effusion, à travers une matière impalpable. Après deux ans dans le Quercy, puis trois à Orange, la famille s'installe à Carpentras (Vaucluse), en 1951, où Elia est nommé professeur.
A partir des années 60, Paul Surtel ajoute paysages, natures mortes et portraits.

___________________________

2025 - Gravir les montagnes en peinture
par Francis Rousseau

THE MONT VENTOUX PAINTED BY PAUL SURTEL

 

PAUL SURTEL (1893-1985)

 The mont Ventoux (1, 911m - 6, 270ft)

 France (Provence-Alpe-Côte-d'Azur)  

In The mont Ventoux from west , oil on cardboard, (not signed), Private collection, France

 

One can notice that there is not a single tree on those paintings of the Mont Ventoux, which is no longer the case today. This is the result of an intensive reforestation policy carried out by the French State services on this mountain which had been devastated by the forestry exploitation in the late 19th and the early 20th century.

The mountain 

Mont Ventoux  (1, 911m - 6, 270ft), Ventor in Latin, is located in the French department of Vaucluse (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur). It is about 25 kilometers long on an east-west for 15 kilometers wide on a north-south axis. Nicknamed the Giant of Provence, it is the culmination of the Monts du Vaucluse, the ultimate link of the Southern Alps and the highest peak of Vaucluse. Its geographical isolation makes it visible over great distances.

The painter 

Paul Surtel is a French painter and epistolier, the son of a family of coffee makers and restaurateurs living in the Paris region. Fernand Maillaud, the "good master",  a landscape painter, very good friend of Paul's father, introduced him very early to painting. In1904, Paul Surtel went up to Paris,at the Lycée Charlemagne and the Arts Décoratifs, but especially at the "l'école buissonnière", visiting  museums and exhibitions in the galleries of Paris instead to go to school ! He then became passionate for Rembrandt and especially Corot (who greatly influenced him).
At the end of the First World War, he was enlisted as an artilleryman (at the beginning of 1917). From Seine and Marne in Lorraine, Belgium, Somme, he went from offensive to cantonments. Then he allows himself to be taken back by nature, draws, leaves emotion to guide his hand, the craft acquiring itself by dint of attention and work.
Demobilized in Hyères, Paul found a forestry foreman occupation in the Var, and discovered the Provençal nature that would become the source of his work and would make him known as a "regionalist painter", a rather pejorative label to carry in France until very recently.  In 1937, during one of his first exhibitions in Oran (Algeria, at that time French department) Paul Surtel meets Elia Duc, a young teacher in a small the algerian city. They married in 1939. After that follows 48 years of passionate creation and happiness, especially in Peipin, a tiny village in the Alpes of Haute Provence where the couple settled. His paintings radiate tenderness, lightness, effusion, through impalpable matter. After two years in Quercy, then three in Orange, the family settles in Carpentras (Vaucluse), in 1951, where Elia is named professor.
From the 60s, Paul Surtel added landscapes, still-lifes and portraits.

___________________________

2021 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MONT VENTOUX PAINTED BY PAUL SURTEL

PAUL SURTEL (1893-1985)

 The mont Ventoux (1, 911m - 6, 270ft)

 France (Provence-Alpe-Côte-d'Azur)  

1. The mont Ventoux from north, oil on cardboard, Private collection, France

2.  The mont Ventoux from south-west, oil on cardboard, Private collection, France

 3. The mont Ventoux from west , oil on cardboard, (not signed), Private collection, France

 4. The mont Ventoux from south, oil on cardboard, Private collection, France

One can notice that there is not a single tree on those paintings of the Mont Ventoux, which is no longer the case today. This is the result of an intensive reforestation policy carried out by the French State services on this mountain which had been devastated by the forestry exploitation in the late 19th and the early 20th century.

The mountain 

Mont Ventoux  (1, 911m - 6, 270ft), Ventor in Latin, is located in the French department of Vaucluse (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur). It is about 25 kilometers long on an east-west for 15 kilometers wide on a north-south axis. Nicknamed the Giant of Provence, it is the culmination of the Monts du Vaucluse, the ultimate link of the Southern Alps and the highest peak of Vaucluse. Its geographical isolation makes it visible over great distances.

- More about Mont Ventoux 

The painter 

Paul Surtel is a French painter and epistolier, the son of a family of coffee makers and restaurateurs living in the Paris region. Fernand Maillaud, the "good master",  a landscape painter, very good friend of Paul's father, introduced him very early to painting. In1904, Paul Surtel went up to Paris,at the Lycée Charlemagne and the Arts Décoratifs, but especially at the "l'école buissonnière", visiting  museums and exhibitions in the galleries of Paris instead to go to school ! He then became passionate for Rembrandt and especially Corot (who greatly influenced him).
At the end of the First World War, he was enlisted as an artilleryman (at the beginning of 1917). From Seine and Marne in Lorraine, Belgium, Somme, he went from offensive to cantonments. Then he allows himself to be taken back by nature, draws, leaves emotion to guide his hand, the craft acquiring itself by dint of attention and work.
Demobilized in Hyères, Paul found a forestry foreman occupation in the Var, and discovered the Provençal nature that would become the source of his work and would make him known as a "regionalist painter", a rather pejorative label to carry in France until very recently.  In 1937, during one of his first exhibitions in Oran (Algeria, at that time French department) Paul Surtel meets Elia Duc, a young teacher in a small the algerian city. They married in 1939. After that follows 48 years of passionate creation and happiness, especially in Peipin, a tiny village in the Alpes of Haute Provence where the couple settled. His paintings radiate tenderness, lightness, effusion, through impalpable matter. After two years in Quercy, then three in Orange, the family settles in Carpentras (Vaucluse), in 1951, where Elia is named professor.
From the 60s, Paul Surtel added landscapes, still-lifes and portraits.