Guy Baer
Born in La Tour-de-Peilz (Switzerland) on 8 February 1897.
Died in Vevey (Switzerland) on 22 May 1985.
Swiss · Twentieth-century Swiss figurative painting · landscape, still life and portraiture.
Guy Baer (1897–1985) was a Swiss painter closely associated with the artistic life of Vevey and the Vaud Riviera. Landscapes, still lifes and portraits form the main strands of his work. His training in Geneva with Serge Pahnke and Henri van Muyden is documented by SIK-ISEA, which also records his work as a draughtsman, watercolourist and lithographer.
His exhibition history is documented from 1919, when he showed with Steven-Paul Robert at Galerie Seiler in Vevey. During the 1920s Baer belonged to the Le Disque group, which was close to the Purist theories of Le Corbusier and Ozenfant. Further exhibitions are documented at Galerie Paul Vallotton in Lausanne in 1944, 1954 and 1971, at Galerie Artis in Vevey in 1957, and at Musée Jenisch in 1967 with Steven-Paul Robert under the title “50 ans de peinture”.
From 1955 Robert regularly shared Baer’s Atelier Cytharis at La Ciotat.
The Fondation de la Société des Beaux-Arts de Vevey holds two oils that provide precise reference points for his painting of the 1950s: La cruche blanche, 1958, 64.5 × 91 cm, SBAV 274, and Libérienne, 1954, 46.3 × 33 cm, SBAV 160. Musée Jenisch lists Guy Baer among the artists represented in this foundation collection.
His connection with Musée Jenisch extends beyond the presence of his own paintings. The museum documents his 1968 gift of Louis Soutter’s drawing Georges ne vit plus, inv. 1968-188, and the 1985 bequest of a woodcut by Félix Vallotton, inv.
1985-005. These works are by Soutter and Vallotton and demonstrate Baer’s role as a collector and donor.
The documented market is modest but verifiable: Dogny Auction records Nature morte aux grenades et raisins in its 29 June 2010 sale and La Ciotat, 1969, in its 3 December 2013 sale. Ivoire-Primardeco also offered another La Ciotat in January 2025, with no public result located; a Conan Belleville sale announced for October 2026 must not be treated as an auction result before a result is published.
