Rating and value of paintings by Wilfrid Gabriel de Glehn

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Rating and value of the artist

An artist of the early post-impressionist movement, Wilfrid Gabriel de Glehn enjoyed artistic renown during his lifetime, especially on a regional scale.

Today, the artist's works are rare but rated on the market. Landscape scenes from the south of France are particularly sought-after by collectors.

A work by Wilfrid Gabriel de Glehn can fetch thousands of euros, as shown by his oil on canvas L'escalade - canots et voiliers, which fetched €236,600, whereas it was estimated at between €55,000 and €78,900.

Order of value from the most basic to the most prestigious

The works and style of Wilfrid Gabriel de Glehn

Wilfrid Gabriel de Glehn, influenced by movements such as Impressionism, Neo-Impressionism and Synthetism, is distinguished by his bold handling of color and play with light.

His works don't just depict realistic scenes: they seek to capture the particular atmosphere and light of the landscapes of southern France, particularly Provence and the Côte d'Azur, where he loved to paint. His color palette is often vivid, reflecting the intensity of Mediterranean landscapes, while his marked contours emphasize forms with elegance and simplicity.

What makes his canvases so unique is his desire to move beyond purely realistic detail to express impressions. His sun-drenched landscapes exude a sense of warmth and calm, as if he were trying to convey the emotions these places evoke.

By playing with light contrasts, he manages to give each scene a special, almost poetic aura, where the viewer feels not only what he sees, but also the mood and energy of the moment.

Wilfrid Gabriel de Glehn, a British painter of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, shares an approach in which light and atmosphere are central to composition with several other artists of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, in the French and British context. 

A friend and collaborator of John Singer Sargent, De Glehn follows in the footsteps of Impressionism, while retaining an academic rigor in his treatment of forms and figures.

Like Sargent or Claude Monet, he favors outdoor scenes, capturing fleeting moments with a luminous palette and light brushstrokes.

Artists such as Philip Leslie Hale or Cecilia Beaux also show stylistic affinities with De Glehn, adopting this same subtle mastery of chiaroscuro and transparent color to create works vibrant with energy and life.

The life of Wilfrid Gabriel de Glehn  

Wilfrid Gabriel de Glehn, British artist of the early 20th century, was renowned for his subtle mastery of light and landscapes, often inspired by his travels across Europe.

A close friend of John Singer Sargent, with whom he shared a passion for plein-air painting, de Glehn forged a reputation for vibrant scenes bathed in soft light and a serene atmosphere.

His works, halfway between Impressionism and a certain realism, are characterized by light touches and a rich palette, where every color seems to breathe. Although influenced by the Impressionists, he retains a concern for form and structure that gives his canvases a timeless elegance.

Wilfrid Gabriel de Glehn, although close to Impressionism, stands out for a more structured approach than that of many French artists such as Jacques Gautherin, Paul Signac or Suzanne Valadon.

While de Glehn favors soft light and soothing compositions, Gautherin and Valadon often opt for more intense scenes, with more forthright brushstrokes and a sometimes more dramatic touch.

With de Glehn, light envelops forms without jarring contrasts, whereas Valadon plays more on volumes and textures with an almost raw energy.

Paul Signac, a pioneer of pointillism, meanwhile offers a more fragmented view of the world, with each color broken down into distinct points. De Glehn, by contrast, prefers more fluid transitions, giving a sense of continuity in his landscapes.

Where Signac celebrates the vibration of pure color, de Glehn remains closer to a naturalistic reality, even if light and atmosphere remain at the heart of his work.

Thus, although all these artists share a sensibility for color and light, each approaches it in his own way. De Glehn anchors himself in a pictorial serenity, where Valadon, Signac and Gautherin explore more daring and contrasting paths, whether through material, form or technique.

Digital retrospective of W.G. de Glehn

Wilfrid Gabriel de Glehn's imprint on his period

Wilfrid Gabriel de Glehn is a fairly well-known Impressionist in the UK, since it was there that he mostly worked and exhibited. On the other hand, he is not known to the general public in France, nor exhibited much.

On the other hand, as paintings by the artist and more generally by the 20th century possess a high quotation on the art market, many French collectors appreciate his work and are willing to bid in order to own one of his paintings.

Focus on the cover view of Venice, W.G. de Glehn

This painting by Wilfrid Gabriel de Glehn perfectly illustrates the soothing atmosphere and subtle luminosity that characterize his work. The scene depicts a seaside, probably in Venice, where the elegant buildings and boats moored at the quay create a harmonious, balanced composition.

De Glehn, true to his Impressionist style, captures here a moment of calm, where the soft light of day grazes the surfaces with elegance.

The palette used is both luminous and soft, dominated by light shades of beige, ochre and blue. The building's walls seem almost to melt into the pale sky, an effect that testifies to the way de Glehn incorporates natural light into his compositions.

The fluidity of the brushstrokes, particularly visible in the sky and water, reinforces this sense of harmony between the elements. We sense that the artist is seeking to convey an impression of tranquility rather than dwelling on overly precise details.

The boats, in the foreground, are painted with simple shapes and dark colors, creating a contrast with the luminosity of the building and the sky. This play of contrasts adds depth to the scene, without upsetting the overall balance of the painting.

The water, for its part, is rendered in subtle reflections, reinforcing the idea of a moment of calm, almost suspended in time. Also noticeable is the absence of clearly defined human figures, a frequent choice for de Glehn, who seems to prefer letting natural and architectural elements speak for themselves rather than focusing his works on human activity.

The artist's impressionistic touch is reflected in his use of color to suggest light and atmosphere, rather than to describe objects realistically. De Glehn does not hesitate to leave certain parts of the canvas open, as if the viewer were invited to complete the image mentally.

This approach, very characteristic of the Impressionists, allows the focus to be on sensation rather than form.

The composition of the painting is carefully built around the imposing building, which occupies a large part of the space. The eye is naturally drawn to this structure, whose architecture is suggested by a few precise lines and touches of light.

The windows and arches are barely sketched, but their presence lends an impression of monumentality, almost solemnity, to this otherwise simple scene. The blurred background, where we can barely make out the silhouettes of other buildings, contributes to this serene, airy atmosphere.

In short, this painting by Wilfrid Gabriel de Glehn demonstrates the artist's talent for capturing the ephemeral beauty of a landscape, without overloading the canvas with detail. The emphasis is on the harmony of colors and shapes, and on this ability to capture a moment of calm, where everything seems bathed in a soft, diffused light.

What strikes above all is the way de Glehn manages to convey an almost tactile sense of atmosphere, where the gaze loses itself between glistening water and walls bathed in light.

His signature

W.G. de Glehn's works are not all signed, which is why expertise is important.

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