Alfred
CASILE

Alfred Casile – Between Northern Atmospheres and Mediterranean Light
 

A classical training and promising beginnings

Alfred Casile was born in Marseille in 1848. Drawn to drawing from an early age, he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in his hometown, where he was trained in a structured style grounded in academic principles. Eager to refine his skills, he moved to Paris and entered the studio of the landscape painter Antoine Guillemet.

Impressed by the young artist’s talent, Guillemet introduced him to Eugène Boudin and Johan Barthold Jongkind. In Honfleur, alongside these masters, Casile discovered a new approach to landscape painting—one that was more attuned to light, fleeting atmospheric effects, and the truth of the motif. This experience would prove foundational.

A vision between two worlds

In 1891, Alfred Casile returned to southern France and married a young Belgian woman he had met in Paris. Around 1900, the couple moved to Belgium for several years, where Casile was deeply influenced by the muted palette of the northern landscapes—the shifting skies and soft, subdued tones. This influence would leave a lasting imprint on his work.

Upon returning to Marseille, Casile began to view the Provençal landscape differently. His Mediterranean is not dazzling but veiled, calm, and wrapped in halftones. Far from the vivid exuberance of his Provençal contemporaries, Casile favored atmosphere—the subtle sensation of the moment—captured with a delicate touch.

A body of work steeped in nuance

Rather than faithful description, it was the fleeting impression, the diffuse light, and the silent elegance of nature that interested him. His seascapes, harbor views, and Provençal countrysides reflect this poetic sobriety, straddling the intimate realism of northern painters and the impressionistic resonance of Boudin or Jongkind.

His paintings reveal a refined sense of harmony and a measured palette, often dominated by silvery greys, soft ochres, and washed-out blues. His art is sincere and discreet, devoid of any ostentation, conveying with emotion the quiet presence of the landscape.

A legacy to be rediscovered

A member of the Société des Artistes Français, Alfred Casile exhibited regularly at the Salon and in several southern galleries. He passed away in Marseille in 1909, leaving behind a coherent and original body of work—at the crossroads between classicism and atmospheric modernity.

Today, his art deserves renewed attention: the work of a deeply sensitive painter, devoted to capturing the subtle, shifting light of his surroundings—between Honfleur and Marseille, between northern clarity and Mediterranean lyricism.