Benjamin Vautier (Swiss artist)

Benjamin Vautier; from the 1899 Yearbook of the Berliner Morgen-Zeitung
Kinder beim Mittagessen
(Children at Lunch, 1857)

Benjamin Vautier (4 April 1829, Morges - 25 April 1898, Düsseldorf) was a Swiss genre painter and illustrator.[1]

Life and work

He was the son of a teacher and began his art studies in Geneva, then worked for two years as a jewelry enamel painter. In 1849, he obtained a position in the studios of history painter Jean-Léonard Lugardon (1801-1884).[1] While there, he also took courses in anatomical drawing at a nearby art school.

The following year, he began attending the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and became a member of "Malkasten" (Paintbox), a local artists' association. He left the Academy for one year to work with Rudolf Jordan as a private student.[2] Eventually, he decided to devote himself to depicting peasant life, which he observed for several years by visiting the Bernese Oberland.

In 1856 he went to Paris, but returned to Düsseldorf a year later and painted his first peasant genre pictures. Initially, he focused on Switzerland, but finally decided to concentrate on the Black Forest region.[2] He also worked as an illustrator (Der Oberhof by Karl Leberecht Immermann, Barfüßele by Berthold Auerbach, and others). Later, he became a Royal Professor at the Academy in Düsseldorf.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Benjamin Vautier (Swiss artist) in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Eduard Daelen (1908), "Vautier, Benjamin", Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB) (in German) 54, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 738–741

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Benjamin Vautier (1829-1898).

Illustrations online (selection)

Digitalized by the University and State Library Düsseldorf: