Posts in Category: Swiss
Félix Vallotton
Félix Vallotton, December 28, 1865–December 29, 1925, was a Swiss-French painter and printmaker born in Lausanne. He moved to Paris in 1882 and studied at the Académie Julian under Jules Joseph Lefebvre and Gustave Boulanger.
Vallotton exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français and became associated with the Nabis in the 1890s. His woodcuts, paintings, portraits, interiors, landscapes, and illustrations are characterized by simplified forms, firm contours, and sharply organized areas of light and dark.
Vallotton became a French citizen in 1900 and continued working in Paris and Honfleur. He died in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1925; his work is held by the Musée d’Orsay, Kunsthaus Zürich, Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne, Kunstmuseum Bern, and other major collections.
Karl Bodmer
Karl Bodmer, February 11, 1809–October 30, 1893, was a Swiss painter and printmaker. Born in Zurich, he studied drawing and painting with his uncle, Johann Jakob Meyer, a landscape painter and engraver. He later traveled and worked in the Rhine and Moselle regions.
In 1832–1834, Bodmer accompanied Prince Maximilian of Wied on an expedition to North America, producing landscapes and portraits. His drawings and watercolors supplied the basis for the aquatint illustrations of Maximilian’s published account. He settled in Paris in 1836 and moved to Barbizon in 1849, where he associated with Jean-François Millet and Théodore Rousseau.
Joslyn Art Museum holds the collection of Bodmer’s North American expedition watercolors and drawings received in 1986. Other works are held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Bodmer died in Paris.
Paul Klee
Paul Klee, December 18, 1879–June 29, 1940, was a Swiss-born German artist. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich under Heinrich Knirr and Franz von Stuck and later associated with artists of Der Blaue Reiter.
Klee worked in drawing, printmaking, watercolor and painting, frequently combining media and experimental supports. He taught at the Bauhaus in Weimar and Dessau from 1921 to 1931 and at the Düsseldorf Academy from 1931 until his dismissal by the Nazi authorities in 1933.
Klee returned to Bern in 1933 and continued working there during his final years. His work is held by the Zentrum Paul Klee, Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and other major collections.
