SAMIVEL (Paul Gayet-Tancrède)

"Here is the space, here is the pure air, here is the silence..."

Samivel, poet of the Alps.

Famous for his watercolours of the mountains, Samivel, whose real name is Paul Gayet-Tancrède, is a writer, graphic designer, illustrator, film-maker and photographer. His pseudonym "Samivel" is taken from Dickens' "Adventures of Mr Pickwick" and the character of Sam Weller.

His career as an illustrator began in 1928. He contributed to alpine magazines and books, as he was himself a fervent alpine sportsman. He was also a very committed pioneer in the preservation of natural habitats and endangered species. On this subject, he designed several posters for the French Mountain Federation and the Vanoise Park, including " Les dix commandements de la montagne " (The Ten Commandments of the Mountain) in the 1980s.

As a filmmaker, he accompanied Paul-Emil Victor on the first French expedition to Greenland in 1948 and made three documentary films about this expedition. In 1952, he directed a film on the beauty of alpine nature: "Cimes et merveilles". As an illustrator, he honours the texts of great writers such as Villon, Rabelais or Ramuz.

His watercolours and posters celebrate the high mountains and their snowy peaks. Nature is serene and infinite. The presence of man is put in the background: tiny climbers perched at the top of a grandiose and calm mountain landscape, as in his poster for "Chamonix" in 1972 or " Découvrez la montagne avec un guide ", circa 1975. The use of pastel colours, light azure blue and white, enhances the impression of purity and silence ("Lac Blanc - Le Grépon et l'aiguille verte" or "Gardez-la intacte" in the 1980s). The mountain is the land of freedom, the place of the free man.

Samivel donated all his work to the Musée d'Ethnographie in Geneva.