Alfred Rehfous
Born in 1860.
Died in 1912.
Alfred Rehfous (Geneva, 1860–1912) was a Swiss landscape painter associated with the Savièse School. From 1876 to 1880, he trained at the École des beaux-arts de Genève under Barthélemy Menn, then continued his studies in Paris in the studios of Alexandre Cabanel and Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant. He returned to settle in Geneva in 1889.
From 1890 onwards, he discovered the Savièse plateau and gradually joined the community of artists working in Valais. In 1900, he settled in Saillon, while retaining Geneva as his base. He took an active part in Swiss artistic institutions, served on the Federal Art Commission and became vice-president of the Society of Swiss Painters, Sculptors and Architects in 1907.
His subjects include the area around Geneva, the Vully, neighbouring France and the landscapes of Valais. The designation Savièse School places his work within an artists’ colony, but does not fully sum up his approach. Rehfous often gave priority to the landscape itself, whereas several of his contemporaries placed peasant figures in the foreground.
This difference can be seen in Saillon, plaine et montagnes, held by the Galerie d’art de la Banque cantonale du Valais: a river crosses the composition, leading the eye from the poplars and the village towards the snow-covered mountain ranges. The figure of a peasant woman, seen from behind, recedes into the landscape. The painting thus gives the Rhône plain an unusual prominence among representations of Savièse.
The dating of many works remains uncertain, as Rehfous generally did not date his paintings. The BCVS places Saillon, plaine et montagnes among his last works, based on his signature and on the painter’s exhibitions between 1904 and 1910. The Swiss Confederation Art Collections also list Étang de Vernayaz (1897–1898), La colline de Saint-Livres (c.
1905) and Le Haut de Cry (c. 1909). These reference points demonstrate the breadth of his landscapes, extending from Lake Geneva and the Vaud countryside to the Valais Alps.
