Charles Menge
Born in 1920.
Died in 2009.
His practice is distinguished by its technical and thematic versatility: he worked with landscapes, still lifes and genre scenes, and also engaged with a range of formats and supports, notably mural painting, mosaic and illustration. This diversity is evident both in easel works and in decorative and mural interventions.
His training began in Geneva: in 1936 he entered the École des Arts Industriels, then continued his studies at the École des Beaux-Arts, directed by Adrien Bovy. His first known exhibition took place in Sion in 1944. Study trips subsequently took him to Florence, Paris and Provence, as well as to Amsterdam and Leuven.
Among his appearances abroad was an exhibition at Galerie Brand in Amsterdam in 1954.
In Belgium, he created a large mural decoration for the university restaurant in Leuven. On his return to Sion in 1955, he executed the mural decorations for the boys’ primary school of Les Collines. Among his earlier frescoes is the one adorning the Chapelle de Mâche, dated 1948.
In 1964, he married Rose-Marie Wenger. In 1969, he was made an Honorary Knight of the Order of la Channe, a distinction described by the source as a token of thanks for his support of Valais viticulture. The documentation points to the circulation of forged paintings attributed to him, an important consideration when verifying attributions and provenance.
