Ier Chant (First Song)

In June 1918, Alice Bailly became acquainted with Werner Reinhart, a German-speaking Swiss philanthropist renowned for his patronage of the arts. The pair met in Geneva at the home of the artist Alexandre Cingria. Werner…

Portrait du général Bonaparte (Portrait of General Bonaparte)

This life-sized bust was commissioned by the Directoire, which hailed Napoléon Bonaparte as a hero on his return from the Italian campaign in December 1797. He sat for an initial version in plaster before setting…

Rade de Genève ou Vol de mouettes (Geneva Harbour or Flight of Gulls)

Alice Bailly was on the cusp of turning forty when her decision to adopt an avant-garde style paid off in Paris. She became friends with Guillaume Apollinaire, spent time with Sonia and Robert Delaunay, and…

Femme à la rose (Woman and Rose)

Eugène Grasset was something of a paradox. Though considered in his day as the artist who best captured the essence of womanhood, he expressed gross misogyny in his private diaries: “men and women differ not…

Joueuses d’osselets (Women playing knucklebones)

After Alice Bailly moved to Paris in 1906, she began to move in Fauvist circles. At the start of the 1910s, her style changed dramatically as she encountered the Cubists in Montparnasse. It is fair…

Le Bosphore (The Bosphorus)

Émile David studied with Barthélémy Menn in Geneva and Charles Gleyre in Paris before heading for Italy in 1848. He spent much of his time in Rome with his fellow artists, Étienne Duval and Auguste…

Esquisse pour “La séparation des apôtres” (Sketch for the Separation of the Apostles)

Charles Gleyre achieved instant success at the 1843 Paris Salon with Le Soir (Evening), an Orientalist reverie that won a Second Class medal and was acquired by the French state. Two years later, on a…

Portrait d’enfant. Valentin en train de peindre, grandeur nature (Portrait of a Child. Valentin painting, life size)

As a young man, Auguste Baud was influenced by his friendship with the artistically and intellectually inclined Bovy family of Geneva, who introduced him to the socialist ideals of Charles Fourier. His life grew even…

Chrétien et Plein d’Espoir capturés par le géant Désespoir (Christian and Hopeful captured by the giant Despair)

Seeing Fra Angelico’s frescos on a trip to Italy in 1877 confirmed Eugène Burnand’s intention to turn to religious subjects: from the latter half of the 1890s on, he worked on nothing else. In addition…

Les Petites Brodeuses (The Little Embroideresses)

This painting is the perfect example of how Swiss painters based abroad adapted their output to local markets. Albert Anker trained at the Vaud-born master Charles Gleyre’s Paris studio in the early 1850s. By the…