Born in Lyon on December 22, 1875 to wealthy Swiss parents, Emile Wegelin enjoyed a comfortable life and was able to pursue his artistic career without financial constraints.
One of his earliest tutors and mentors was Emile Noirot (1853-1924) a prominent artist from the Loire region. Noirot’s enthusiastic support and encouragement of the young artist greatly assisted Wegelin in gaining early recognition amongst his peers. Wegelin regularly visited and worked with all the leading artists of the Lyon region. In particular he enjoyed the company of Henri Grosjean, Eugene Brouillard and Jules Dervet.
The artist who most influenced Wegelin, however, was Pierre Montezin (1874-1946) with whom he studied and worked for many years. Wegelin and Montezin travelled together on numerous painting expeditions throughout France and on at least one occasion to Venice.
The two artists worked well together, enjoying the close relationship of painting side by side. This close contact with such an inspiring master as Montezin, encouraged Wegelin to produce some of his finest works and this was arguably the happiest period of his life. Sadly Montezin died in 1946 leaving Wegelin to paint alone. Alone or not, he set down his easel in every corner of France and he often travelled abroad to Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Great Britain.
Emile Wegelin was above all a landscape painter and loved to paint nature as he saw it, without any exaggerated interpretation. His paintings were exhibited regularly at the Spring exhibition of the Societe Lyonnaise des Beaux-Arts, where he obtained First Prize in 1930. He also exhibited in Provence, Lausanne and Fribourg.
Being in the fortunate position of not having to sell paintings to pay his way, Emile Wegelin accumulated a number of his favourite works to form his own private collection. The collection was shown in the form of a major retrospective exhibition at the Academy Beaux-Arts at Lyon. Recently some of these, amongst his finest works, have come onto the market in Paris allowing collectors and the public in general to judge for themselves the value of his beautiful paintings. Several extremely poplar public sales have done much to further enhance his reputation as an artist of outstanding talent.