(b Solothurn, 28 March 1868; d Oschwand, 6 July 1961). Swiss painter and sculptor. From 1884 to 1886 he received irregular lessons from the Swiss painter Frank Buscher (1828–90). In the autumn of 1886 he attended the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Munich and the following year met Giovanni Giacometti, who was to be a lifelong friend. In 1888 he visited the Internationale Kunstausstellung in Munich, where he was particularly impressed by the work of Jules Bastien-Lepage and Whistler. This prompted him to go to Paris to continue his studies, and from 1888 to 1891 he attended the Académie Julian, working under William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Tony Robert-Fleury and Gabriel Ferrier. While in Paris he also met Paul Sérusier, Maurice Denis and other Nabis artists, though his own painting of this period was most influenced by Impressionism. In 1892 he was advised to visit Pont-Aven in Brittany, where he met Emile Bernard, Armand Séguin and Roderic O’Conor, as well as seeing the works of Vincent Van Gogh and Gauguin at first hand. This brief period had a decisive effect upon his work, leading to such Synthetist paintings as Breton Spinner (1893; R. Kisling priv. col., see 1982 exh. cat., pl. 5).

• Amiet, Cuno
  • Berne, §2: Art life and organization
  • Switzerland, §III, 6: Painting and graphic arts: 20th-century developments
  • groups and movements
    • Brücke, Die, §1: Founding of the group
    • Expressionism, §1(i)(b): Origins and developments in Germany: Artists’ groups
  • works
    • Mural, §1(i): Europe, c 1810–c 1930