View towards the Oberalp with St. Maria Hilfestrasse, near Andermatt, Switzerland
Description:
A view looking eastwards of the little church of St. Maria Hilfe, above Andermatt, with a view towards the Oberalp Pass. Oil on panel, probably mahogany, signed lower centre right ‘A. M. Ury’, and labelled and dated lower left “1911 Andermatt”. The back of the panel bears a stamp ‘F. Dupré, 141, Faubourg St. Honoré 141, coin de la Rue Berri, Paris’.
Location:
Private Collection, Switzerland
Provenance:
The Misses Iva, Doris & Ines Müller, Chalet Bellevue, Andermatt, Switzerland
American Art News, Vol. 7, No. 2, New York, October 24, 1908, p. 3, said that whilst in Switzerland in the summer Muller-Ury had painted ‘three panels representing glimpses of the mountains’ which were ‘…combined in a screen.’ This may have been the artist’s intention, for the three panels known are approximately the same size, and bear the stamp from the same supplier in Paris, and are today in the same private Swiss collection.
This panel, however, is, of a finer quality than the other two, and bears the date 1911.
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Probably painted from a balcony at the top of the Grand Bellevue Palace Hotel, Andermatt (demolished 1986) which was run by the artist’s brother Albert Müller.
An explanation for the fact that this picture bears the date 1911 and not 1908, may be that this panel was left unfinished in the summer of 1908 and the artist completed it three years later, or that it had hardly been begun. Of course, there may be another picture on panel which is now lost.
