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Albert Anker, La reine Berthe et les fileuses (Queen Bertha and the Spinners), 1888

Albert Anker

La reine Berthe et les fileuses (Queen Bertha and the Spinners), 1888

A woman is busy teaching four girls hand-spinning. The activity lets Albert Anker form a diagonal across the centre of the composition, from the basket…

Léopold Robert, Brigand de la campagne romaine (Brigand in the Roman Campagna), 1821

Léopold Robert

Brigand de la campagne romaine (Brigand in the Roman Campagna), 1821

Léopold Robert initially trained as an engraver. In 1812, he joined the studio of Jacques-Louis David, who encouraged him to turn to painting. Robert moved…

Edouard Girardet, Le Retour de la montagne (Return from the Mountain), 1851

Edouard Girardet

Le Retour de la montagne (Return from the Mountain), 1851

The Bernese Oberland developed a busy tourist trade as early as the latter half of the eighteenth century. Local artists would churn out engravings and…

Louis Soutter, Anges musiciens (Angel Musicians), between 1931 and 1937

Louis Soutter

Anges musiciens (Angel Musicians), between 1931 and 1937

The 1930s saw Louis Soutter produce thirty or so drawings in dialogue with the classical repertoire, particularly the Italian schools of the thirteenth to sixteenth…

Henri Manguin , Nature morte au plat de fruits (Still life with a dish of fruit), 1917

Henri Manguin

Nature morte au plat de fruits (Still life with a dish of fruit), 1917

At the age of eighteen, Henri Manguin struck up a friendship with two fellow fine art students, Albert Marquet and Henri Matisse. The trio was…

François Bocion, La Dispute religieuse de Lausanne (The Lausanne Disputation), 1857

François Bocion

La Dispute religieuse de Lausanne (The Lausanne Disputation), 1857

The lands now known as the Vaud belonged to the House of Savoy and the Lausanne bishopric until they were annexed by Bern early in…

Laura B. Goeldlin de Tiefenau, Sapho se précipitant dans la mer (Sappho throwing herself in the sea), 1943

Laura B. Goeldlin de Tiefenau

Sapho se précipitant dans la mer (Sappho throwing herself in the sea), 1943

Laura B. Goeldlin de Tiefenau was born in the United States and studied painting and sculpting in Santa Barbara, California. When she moved to Switzerland…

Pierre Blanc, Pigeon boulant (Pouter Pigeon), c. 1933

Pierre Blanc

Pigeon boulant (Pouter Pigeon), c. 1933

Pierre Blanc moved to Paris in October 1925. Though still a young man, he had already been part of the team working on the sculpted…

Louis Soutter, L'américaine doit être plus grande... (The American woman must be bigger...), between 1930 and 1937

Louis Soutter

L'américaine doit être plus grande... (The American woman must be bigger...), between 1930 and 1937

Louis Soutter studied fine art in Geneva and Paris before setting out for New York, where he planned to set up an art and interior…

François Sablet, Offrande à Hymen (Offering to Hymen), 1783

François Sablet

Offrande à Hymen (Offering to Hymen), 1783

François Sablet, older brother of the better-known Jacques, travelled to Paris in 1768 to complete his studies in the studio of Joseph-Marie Vien. He built…

André Derain , Forêt en Île-de-France (Sous-bois) (Forest in Ile-de-France, undergrowth), c. 1946-1948

André Derain

Forêt en Île-de-France (Sous-bois) (Forest in Ile-de-France, undergrowth), c. 1946-1948

While Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso left Cubism behind and moved on to a "new synthesis", André Derain turned increasingly to a restrictive form of…

Ernest Biéler, Portrait de Nathalie Biéler, sœur de l'artiste (Portrait of the artist's sister Nathalie Biéler), 1885

Ernest Biéler

Portrait de Nathalie Biéler, sœur de l'artiste (Portrait of the artist's sister Nathalie Biéler), 1885

Ernest Biéler moved from his native Switzerland to Paris in 1880 to study at the Atelier suisse, the Académie Colarossi and the Académie Julian. In…

Horace Vernet, Première messe en Kabylie (First mass in Kabylia), 1854

Horace Vernet

Première messe en Kabylie (First mass in Kabylia), 1854

Horace Vernet first travelled to Algeria following the French army on its conquest of North Africa. His first of many visits to the country came…

Auguste Renoir , Coco. Portrait de Claude Renoir (Coco. Portrait of Claude Renoir), 1908

Auguste Renoir

Coco. Portrait de Claude Renoir (Coco. Portrait of Claude Renoir), 1908

Auguste Renoir called on friends and family to sit for him throughout his career. In the early years, this was a purely economic decision, avoiding…

Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen, Masséida et le singe Gaspard (Masséida and the monkey Gaspard), after 1911

Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen

Masséida et le singe Gaspard (Masséida and the monkey Gaspard), after 1911

In 1911, Jean-Louis Forain introduced Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen to Masséida, a young woman of Bambara ethnicity well known in art circles. She regularly posed for artists,…

Charles Gleyre, Portrait de Madame Arsène Houssaye (Portrait of Mrs. Arsène Houssaye), c. 1845 - 1850

Charles Gleyre

Portrait de Madame Arsène Houssaye (Portrait of Mrs. Arsène Houssaye), c. 1845 - 1850

Back in Paris in 1838 after a lengthy absence, Charles Gleyre set about rebuilding his professional network. To do so, he called on longstanding friends,…

Giovanni Giacometti, Portrait d'Alberto (Portrait of Alberto), 1921

Giovanni Giacometti

Portrait d'Alberto (Portrait of Alberto), 1921

In 1921, Giovanni Giacometti painted four portraits of his beloved son Alberto, later to become one of the twentieth century's greatest sculptors. He may have…

Gustave Courbet, La Vigneronne de Montreux (Grape picker, Montreux), 1874

Gustave Courbet

La Vigneronne de Montreux (Grape picker, Montreux), 1874

Gustave Courbet's time in exile in La Tour-de-Peilz inspired him mainly landscape paintings. He did not turn his back on the human figure completely, however,…

Auguste Veillon, Un soir à Brunnen (Brunnen, Evening), 1867

Auguste Veillon

Un soir à Brunnen (Brunnen, Evening), 1867

Auguste Veillon abandoned his theology studies in Lausanne to attend François Diday's art studio in Geneva. He then travelled to Paris to study on his…

Edgar Degas, Portrait d'homme, d’après Maurice Quentin de La Tour (Portrait of a man, after Quentin de La Tour), c. 1868-1870

Edgar Degas

Portrait d'homme, d’après Maurice Quentin de La Tour (Portrait of a man, after Quentin de La Tour), c. 1868-1870

This copy of a 1760 work by Maurice Quentin de La Tour now in the Musée Jacquemart-André in Paris reflects the late-nineteenth-century popularity of eighteenth-century…

François Bocion, Venice, 1882

François Bocion

François Bocion first visited Venice in the summer of 1874. Having honed his talent on and around Lake Geneva, he now hoped travel would give…

Edouard-Marcel Sandoz, Chien danois (Great Dane), 1911

Edouard-Marcel Sandoz

Chien danois (Great Dane), 1911

Édouard Sandoz studied at the École des arts industriels in Geneva before moving to Paris in January 1904. There, he took private classes with the…

Auguste Rodin, Bust of Victor Hugo, c. 1883-1884

Auguste Rodin

Bust of Victor Hugo, c. 1883-1884

The journalist and art critic Edmond Bazire paid Auguste Rodin a visit late in the autumn of 1882. Rodin confided he was still wounded by…

Constantin Meunier , Le Débardeur (The Stevedore), 1893

Constantin Meunier

Le Débardeur (The Stevedore), 1893

This is one of Constantin Meunier's best-known works, initially designed as part of a Monument to Labour that was never completed. Meunier worked from life…

Émile-Antoine Bourdelle , Vierge à l’offrande (Virgin of the Offering), 1920

Émile-Antoine Bourdelle

Vierge à l’offrande (Virgin of the Offering), 1920

In 1914, war broke out between France and Germany, with Alsace and Lorraine in the thick of the fighting. The industrialist Joseph Vogt, mayor of…

Ernest Biéler, Retour du baptême (Returning from the baptism), 1907

Ernest Biéler

Retour du baptême (Returning from the baptism), 1907

European genre painting began to develop a taste for what might be termed "local exoticism" in around 1830, a trend that culminated at the turn…

Ernest Biéler, Portrait d'Édouard Rod (Portrait of Édouard Rod), 1909

Ernest Biéler

Portrait d'Édouard Rod (Portrait of Édouard Rod), 1909

At the time this work was painted in 1909, Édouard Rod, a native of the Vaud, was a leading figure in the Swiss community in…

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