Fred Fay – Woodblock: Fribourg – Quartier de l’Auge
An original 1932 woodcut by Swiss painter and printmaker Fred Fay depicting the historic Quartier de l’Auge in Fribourg’s lower town.
Fay renders the steeply built old quarter as a bold, highly graphic arrangement of traditional houses, roofs and rocky slopes, while the monumental arches of the Pont de Zaehringen (Zähringerbrücke) rise dramatically above the district. Strong areas of black contrast with rhythmic carved lines defining the cliffs and architecture, emphasizing the striking vertical relationship between Fribourg’s historic lower town and the city above.
The print belongs to an important period in Fay’s work as a wood engraver. In 1931, the previous year, he collaborated with Fribourg writer and historian Gonzague de Reynold on Fribourg: Sept bois gravés de Fred Fay, a limited edition devoted to the city and illustrated with seven original wood engravings.
Signed and inscribed in pencil beneath the image:
1932 – Fribourg – Quartier de l’Auge – Fay
1901, Basel – 1987, Sion
Fred Fay was a Swiss painter, printmaker and art educator whose career became closely associated with the Valais. Born in Basel on 7 July 1901, he received his early artistic training from his father, Ernest Fay, a heraldic painter, before studying at the École des beaux-arts in Geneva. He continued his studies in Florence in 1922 and spent time in Berlin and Stuttgart in 1923.
Fay exhibited for the first time in Geneva in 1918 and subsequently showed his work in Switzerland and elsewhere in Europe. From the mid-1920s onward, the Valais became the principal focus of his artistic activity.
Working across a wide range of media, Fay produced paintings, woodcuts and lithographs as well as illustrations, murals, stained glass and stage designs. His subjects included landscapes, portraits and still lifes, with the landscape and people of the Valais featuring prominently in his work. As an illustrator and printmaker, he contributed wood engravings to publications by Swiss writers including C. F. Ramuz and Gonzague de Reynold. In 1930 he founded and became president of the Société des graveurs de la Suisse latine.
Fay also played an important role in art education in the Valais. After teaching drawing and painting at Montana during the 1940s, he founded the École des beaux-arts du Valais at Saxon in 1949. The school moved to Sion in 1952 and, under Fay’s direction, welcomed teachers including Oskar Kokoschka, Alberto Sartoris and Willy Vuilleumier. Fay remained its director until his retirement in 1972.
Fred Fay died in Sion on 1 June 1987. His extensive personal and professional archive is preserved by the Archives de l’État du Valais, and his work is represented in Swiss institutional collections including the Musée d’art et d’histoire de Genève and the Banque Cantonale du Valais collection.
Woodblock print -Image 13.5 x 18 cm
Full sheet: 28 x 39.5
