Egon von Vietinghoff

He spent his childhood in France (Paris) and Germany (Wiesbaden), lived in Switzerland after 1913 (Geneva, Zuoz and finally Zurich).

During 35 years of autonomous experimenting, from about 1923 until about 1958, Egon von Vietinghoff rediscovered the knowledge of multi-layer mixing of oil and resin not taught in technical handbooks and academies.

His differentiated way of seeing required painting techniques which needed first-class natural substances produced with great care – including some indispensable colors of a chemical origin.

His "Handbuch zur Technik der Malerei" (Handbook of painting technique, in German only and out of print) is a compendium of all his work experiences.

Here Vietinghoff brought in the sum total of his lifelong observations, defined the translucency of color (a property which have previously gone unnoticed in literature) and tackled the theory of chromatics as seen by the creative artist.

Departing from a philosophical and mystical concept, he understood imagination in the sense of creative ability as the possibility of the human spirit to perceive transcendently.

In artistic intensification, intuition – a sort of "seventh sense" – leads to inspiration and uses imagination as an organ of perception of the irrational, absolute reality which we can only divine temporarily with our limited view of the world.

The immense work of Egon von Vietinghoff includes all classical motifs: flowers, still lifes, landscapes, portraits, nudes, and figural scenes.

Without losing himself in details, Vietinghoff leads the eye through the whole spectrum of nuances of color and finds the balance between intensity and gentle peace.

Thus, he created the impression of unity and harmonic interaction of object and background, light and shadow, form and color, detail and totality.

His pictures convey naturalness and – without showy perspective – attract attention due to their plasticity, inner luminosity and masterly placed highlights.