Welcome to the George Whyte Collection
Welcome to the George Whyte Collection, a magnificent collection of art inherited by George’s granddaughters who have taken it upon themselves to develop and market the collection. The collection showcases thousands of works, including the renowned French Naturalist collection, curated by their grandfather George Whyte, who was an avid art lover and collector.
The collection features the works of French landscape painters from the early 20th century, capturing the stunning beauty of the French countryside.
Along with the art, George Whyte occasionally acquired archives that completed the ensembles. Most of the artists are French and spent their lives in France.
These artists were born in the late 19th century and were active during the first half of the 20th century, leaving behind a rich artistic heritage that has been passed down through generations. The George Whyte Collection celebrates the beauty of nature and the rich artistic heritage of France. The works in this collection offer a glimpse into a bygone era, capturing the essence of the time and place in which they were created. They showcase the power of art to inspire and transform and offer a timeless beauty that is unmatched.
We invite you to step into the world of the George Whyte Collection and explore this remarkable collection first-hand. With each piece, you will discover the wonder and magic of art, and the stories behind the artists who created them.
The George Whyte collection mainly consists of studios bought after artists' deaths through their families or at auctions, primarily in France.
Along with the art, George Whyte occasionally acquired archives that completed the ensembles. Most of the artists are French and spent their lives in France.
They were born at the end of the 19th century and were active during the first half of the 20th century. Some artists, such as Greuell, Pospolita, and Slim, were born in foreign countries but moved to France to study and continued to work there. It took George Whyte five to ten years to collect the art in the 1960s and 1970s, and the collection was then stored at the freeport in Geneva.
To understand and justify the aesthetic choices made by George Whyte, it is important to consider all criteria that bring together this group of artists. Firstly, they share a common interest in nature and its different modes of representation, not only the "French Naturalists" but almost all of the artists. During their time, these painters were already concerned with the gradual disappearance of landscapes for the benefit of industrialization.
In a way, their vocation as landscape painters was born out of this concern. This is explained by the devastation caused by the rapid growth of cities, a movement that began in the early nineteenth century, with differences depending on the countries.
Switzerland and France, around the 1850s, were affected by this phenomenon. On both sides of the border, these painters tried to paint authentic landscapes that were about to disappear. The concerns of the collected painters were the same as those who were active by Lake Geneva and in the Swiss Alps. Artists such as Ferdinand Hodler or Ernest Biéler, contemporaries of these painters, shared similar concerns.
All these painters inherited from the realism of Courbet, to which we must add the influence of the Impressionists, very strong until 1900. They all practiced outdoor painting. They enjoyed real notoriety during their lifetime, responding to public orders, exhibiting in major salons in Paris or exporting their paintings to universal and international exhibitions. The most famous Parisian merchants of the 20th century were the first to recognize their respective talents: Berthe Weill, the Druet, Bernheim-Jeune, Georges Petit, Durand-Ruel, and Lorenceau galleries.
Their artistic friendships are also revealing of their respective merits: Gaston Balande worked alongside Albert Marquet, Victor-Ferdinand Bourgeois with Armand Guillaumin, or Paul Deltombe who collaborated for almost 30 years with Paul Signac in the framework of the organization of the Salon des Indépendants.
The collection was kept private because the artists were not well-known, apart from Balande, for whom there were already some prices set. George hired art historians, such as the Australian Lou Klepac or the English Bevis Hillier, to make searches and find information about them. They could find complete studios through contacts. Some paintings were also bought at auction, where there was a studio sale ("vente d'atelier"), or through adverts in the “Gazette Drouot”. They wrote little biographies and investigated museums to see if they could find works. This took a long time, and George did not want to show the art before this was done. The collection mainly consists of first works: the best paintings have been acquired to create the collection.