Charles-Clos Olsommer | Art Nouveau painter

Of French origin, Charles-Clos Olsommer (1883-1966) in Sierre, Switzerland, is naturalized in Neuchâtel in 1899.

He studied painting at the Art School in La Chaux-de-Fonds from 1901-1902 Professor Charles L'Eplattenier.

He attended the Kunstgewerbeschule in Munich (1902-1903) and the School of Fine Arts of Geneva (1904-1905).

He settled permanently in Veyras in 1912. He created there, in a style out of common, the totality of his works.

Félix Vallotton | Landscapes and seascapes

Vallotton's landscapes and seascapes avoided conventional views and techniques, and presented unusual viewpoints and perspectives.

The scene is sometimes seen from above, with the horizon very high in the picture, or without the sky being visible at all.

The forms are simplified, and the figures are often small and almost unrecognizable.

Felix-Vallotton | The Ball, 1899 | Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Felix Vallotton | Still life with gladioli, 1924

Félix Vallotton's still life paintings are characterized by their formal simplicity, striking compositions, and a cool, detached sensibility.

While still lifes were a minor subject for him earlier in his career, they became prominent in his work from around 1910 onwards.

In his later years, painting in his studio in Honfleur, Vallotton concentrated particularly on still lifes, particularly flowers, fruits and vegetables, very carefully arranged and painted with extreme precision.

Félix Vallotton | Figures and Portraits

Félix Edouard Vallotton (1865-1925) was a Swiss /French painter and printmaker associated with Les Nabis.

Vallotton was recognized as a very accomplished portrait painter, and painted portraits of many of the leading figures in the arts of his time.

His early work included a portrait of his fellow Nabi Édouard Vuillard.

The portraits of Vallotton featured both precision and a certain cold realism.

Alice Bailly | Cubist painter

Alice Bailly (1872-1938) was a radical Swiss painter, known for her interpretations on cubism, fauvism, her wool paintings, and her participation in the Dada movement.

In 1906, Bailly had settled in Paris where she befriended Juan Gris, Francis Picabia and Marie Laurencin, avant-garde modernist painters who influenced her works and her later life.

Léopold Robert | Romantic genre painter

Louis Léopold Robert (1794-1835) was a Swiss painter.

He was born at La Chaux-de-Fonds (Neuchâtel) in Switzerland, but left his native place with the engraver Jean Girardet at the age of sixteen for Paris.

He was on the eve of obtaining the grand prix for engraving when the events of 1815 blasted his hopes, for Neuchâtel was restored to Prussia, and Robert was struck off the list of competitors as a foreigner.

Gwenneth Barth-White | Pastel painter

American-born Swiss international artist Gwenneth Barth-White is a Maître Pastelliste of the 150-year-old Société des Pastellistes de France and has served as its Vice President for many years.

She's a Master Pastelist of the Pastel Society of America, and a Signature Member of the Portrait Society of America, where she has served as faculty.

Her work has been exhibited in Geneva, Gstaad, New York, Toronto, Paris, and in many French and American venues.

Hermann Hesse | In the Fog / Nella Nebbia / Im Nebel

Strano vagare nella nebbia!

È solo ogni cespuglio ed ogni pietra,

né gli alberi si scorgono tra loro,

ognuno è solo.

Pieno di amici mi appariva il mondo

quando era la mia vita ancora chiara;

adesso che la nebbia cala

non ne vedo più alcuno.

Julius Von Leypold | Wanderer in the Storm, 1835 | Metropolitan Museum of Art

Giovanni Segantini: ".. Amè piace fare all'amore colle mie concessioni…"

• "… Sarò felice quel giorno che noi in un eletto drappello combatteremo uniti contro la volgarità per la bellezza del senso del colore, per la luce che dà vita alla natura, per la purezza viva e ardente della forma di tutte le cose che dà all’opere nostre quell’armonia ideale dell’anima che si dona all’opera per vivere in essa".

• "… Se si volesse entrare a discorrere seriamente d'arte, per farsi ben capire ed evitare equivoci, sarebbe necessario far precedere un breve trattato di psicologia (nientemeno!). Che altro è l'arte, l'arte bella, vera, elevata, se non l'immagine fotografica, il misuratore che segna il grado di perfezione dell'anima umana?"

Hermann Hesse | Vieni con me!

Vieni con me!

Devi affrettarti però -

sette lunghe miglia

io faccio ad ogni passo.

Dietro il bosco ed il colle

aspetta il mio cavallo rosso.

Gis de Maeyer

Hermann Hesse | Favola d'Amore...

Dalla unione della pittura e la scrittura nasce la "Favola d'amore", un libretto illustrato interamente a colori, in cui la narrazione ed i dipinti del premio Nobel Hermann Hesse (1877-1962) si fondono in un unicum inscindibile per descrivere la vicenda di un giovane pittore, Pictor.

Quest'ultimo, vagando per il Paradiso, incontra un uccello dai mille colori.

A lui Pictor pone la domanda delle domande: "Dov'è dunque la felicità"?, forza inspiegabile e misteriosa.

La "Favola d'Amore" è dedicata a Ruth Wenger, cantante lirica che diventò seconda moglie di Hesse due anni dopo la pubblicazione del manoscritto.

John Simmons (1823-1876) | Hermia and Lysander: A Midsummer Night's Dream, 1870 | Sotheby's

Gustave Poetzsch | Belle Époque painter

Swiss painter of the Belle Époque, Gustave Poetzsch (1870-1950) was born in Neuchâtel where he started to learn painting very young.

Swiss mountains and lakes were the first inspiring influence for the young painter turned to nature.

As he wanted to improve his technique, he went to Paris in 1892 and joined the Julian Academy.

He entered the Fine Art School in 1895 and studied in the class of Gustave Moreau near Henri Matisse, Charles Camoin and Paul de Frick.

Angelica Kauffmann | Neoclassical painter

Angelica Kauffmann (1741-1807) was a painter in the early Neoclassical style who is best known for her decorative wall paintings for residences designed by Robert Adam.

The daughter of Johann Joseph Kauffmann, a painter, Angelica was a precocious child and a talented musician and painter by her 12th year.

Her early paintings were influenced by the French Rococo works of Henri Gravelot and François Boucher.

Carl Schlesinger | Genre / Landscape painter

Carl Schlesinger (1825-1893) was a Swiss-German genre and landscape painter.

Schlesinger began his painting apprenticeship in Hamburg, with Gerdt Hardorff and Hermann Kauffmann and continued it in 1844 at the Prague Academy with Christian Ruben.

Adolfo Feragutti Visconti | Verist painter

Adolfo Feragutti Visconti (1850 in Pura, Canton Ticino - 1924 in Milan) was an Italian / Swiss painter, of eclectic styles and subjects, including orientalist themes, genre works and landscapes.

Orphan of father by the age of 16, Fergutti Visconti enrolled at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts when he was 18, where he studied with Luigi Bisi, and made his debut in 1873 as a perspective painter.

Attracted by the work of the Milanese Scapigliatura movement, he was one of the first members of the Famiglia Artistica.

Henri-Frédéric Amiel: "The masses will always be below the average".. 1871

Journal Intime / 12th June 1871: - "Numbers make law, but goodness has nothing to do with figures.

Every fiction is self-expiating, and democracy rests upon this legal fiction, that the majority has not only force but reason on its side - that it possesses not only the right to act but the wisdom necessary for action.

The fiction is dangerous because of its flattery; the demagogues have always flattered the private feelings of the masses.

René Magritte (1898-1967) | Le lieu commun, 1964 | Christie's

Jean-Etienne Liotard | Orientalist Pastel painter

Jean Etienne Liotard | Woman in Turkish Dress, Seated on a Sofa, 1752 | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Jean-Etienne Liotard was a widely traveled artist whose French Huguenot family had settled in Geneva, where he was born, owing to the passage of the Edict of Nantes.

From 1738 to 1742 he lived in Istanbul (Constantinople) and thereafter painted genre scenes of non-Muslim women in Turkish costume, such as this one, which were greatly admired throughout western Europe.

In pastel, his technique is colorful and exceptionally smooth and flawless.

Jean Etienne Liotard | Woman in Turkish Dress, seated on a Sofa, 1752 (pastel over red chalk underdrawing on parchment) | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ottilie Roederstein | Portrait painter

Ottilie Wilhelmine Roederstein (22 April 1859 - 26 November 1937) was a German-Swiss painter.

She was the long-time companion of Elisabeth Winterhalter, one of the first female doctors in Germany.

Roederstein was born in Zürich, Switzerland.

Gustave François Barraud (Swiss, 1883-1964)

Gustave François Barraud (Geneva, 1883-1964) was an Swiss painter, illustrator and designer.

Is particularly well known for his still lifes, flowers, landscapes, portraits, female figures, wood engravings and lithographs.

Maurice Barraud (Swiss, 1889-1954)

Maurice Barraud (born on February 20, 1889 in Geneva and died on 11 novembre 1954 in the same city), was a Swiss painter and illustrator.

At a young age, Maurice Barraud, together with his brother, Gustave François, who later also established himself as a painter, led a studio for advertising graphics.

He also studied painting and modeling at the École des Beaux-Arts.

In 1914, he moved to painting and, together with his brother, Émile Bressler, Gustave Buchet and others, founded the artist group "Le Falot".