LONDON.- In a captivating exploration of artistic evolution, David Messum Fine Art presents ‘Wilfrid Gabriel de Glehn - A Painter’s Journey Revisited’, running from today through to 1 March. This ambitious exhibition invites you to celebrate de Glehn’s extraordinary artistic journey, featuring 60 works from the Artists’ Studio Estate, includes numerous watercolours, as well as a selection of oil paintings, including rare works dating back to de Glehn’s days as a student in Paris. These pieces are presented alongside sumptuous drawings and oils completed in his home-studio during the winter months when the weather was too poor to travel.

40 years ago, Wilfrid de Glehn’s artistic legacy was overshadowed by his close association with John Singer Sargent (1856-1925). Now, thanks to numerous exhibitions and publications meticulously organised by David Messum Fine Art, de Glehn stands on his own merit. Recognised as an elegant portraitist and a painter of still lifes and landscapes, his works are characterised by exquisitely impressionistic colour and handling.

Whilst Sargent played a crucial role in many of his early successes, his influence on him was, he remained only one element of de Glehn’s life. However, it was through Sargent that Wilfrid would meet his future wife, the talented painter Jane Erin Emmet (1873-1961). His true companion was found in Jane and together they embarked on countless working holidays, travelling throughout France, Spain, Italy, Corfu, Switzerland and the United States, often accompanied variously by Sargent, their relatives and mutual friends. Wherever their travels took them, Wilfrid and Jane set up their easels in proximity to each other, took out their watercolours, and enjoyed an atmosphere of mutual support and creativity that their enduring partnership brought.

An individualist, Wilfrid traversed and adapted his thoroughly cosmopolitan métier, unimpeded by the changing landscape of fin-de-siècle Europe, which had the most decisive influence on his creative imagination and development. Fluent in several European languages, he felt a sense of home and belonging in every country he visited, as much as he did in his native England, presenting himself to all he met as the very model of a gentleman expatriate and artist-traveller.

From the captivating theatricality of Venice to the serene gardens and villas of Tuscany, the classical decadence of Corfu, the exotic foliage of Spain, and the carefree waterside life in Wiltshire’s Stratford Tony where he and Jane eventually retired, the collection paints a vivid picture of de Glehn’s diverse experiences and artistic evolution.

David Messum Fine Art
‘Wilfrid Gabriel de Glehn - A Painter’s Journey Revisited’
7 February to 1 March