Octave Matthey
Born in 1888.
Died in 1969.
Octave Matthey (born 1 March 1888 in La Brévine — died 16 March 1969 in Neuchâtel) is presented in the documents consulted as a figure of neo-rural and urban painting active between the Belle Époque and the post-Second World War period (fact f1; fact f20).
Trained from 1904 to 1910 under Charles L'Eplattenier at the École d'art de La Chaux-de-Fonds, he subsequently pursued studies in Munich, where, according to the sources, he became acquainted in particular with Eastern mythologies (fact f2; fact f3; fact f22). Before the First World War, he stayed in New York from 1912 to 1914, and his career was interrupted by military service: he became a soldier and remained so until 1918 (fact f4; fact f6).
Having returned to Paris from 1919 onwards, he frequented libraries, museums and the Académie de la Grande-Chaumière, took part in the groupings known as the “Artistes indépendants”, and exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants (fact f9; fact f12; fact f10). His Parisian stay continued from 1920 to 1939, then, with the outbreak of the Second World War, he returned to settle in Neuchâtel in 1939 (fact f5; fact f11).
The practice attributed to him places emphasis on numerous portraits and flower bouquets, as well as landscapes inspired by travels in Italy, Germany, Belgium and Holland; the brochure further mentions that he is said to have produced “more than a thousand portraits” and to have distributed them across several countries (fact f7; fact f8). Among the documented commissions and portraits are, in 1916, portraits for members of the Musée d'histoire de Bâle and for Paul Ditisheim in La Chaux-de-Fonds, as well as the portrait of Charles-Edouard Guillaume in 1919 and that of Henri Chrétien, together with several portraits of members of the old French and Parisian aristocracy (facts f16; f17; f18; f21).
The sources also indicate that his time in the United States left material traces, notably stained-glass windows signed “O.M.”, elements mentioned without a precise location in the brochure consulted (fact f14). Upon returning to Switzerland, he kept a journal and sent “correspondences” to the press; in particular, L'Observateur de Genève regularly published his articles, at a rate of one per month, according to the available documentation (fact f15).
The texts in the brochure identify Octave Matthey as one of the notable figures of Neuchâtel painting, a formulation that reflects the way in which his regional career was received by these sources (fact f20). In sum, the assembled elements describe an artist whose activity combined the production of commissioned portraits and genre works, a lengthy stay in Paris between the two wars, and a return to Switzerland, where he pursued a parallel writing activity alongside his work as a painter (facts f7; f5).
