Johann Ludwig Bleuler, sometimes called Louis (12 February 1792 – 28 March 1850) was a Swiss painter, landscape artist, and publisher.

Biography

Bleuler was born in

Feuerthalen Feuerthalen is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Andelfingen (district), Andelfingen in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Zurich (canton), Zürich in Switzerland. Langwiesen also belongs to the same municipality. ...

. His father, Johann Heinrich, was a landscape painter and member of the (lesser masters). His older brother, Johann Heinrich, the Younger (1787–1857) also became a painter. He began his artistic training in his father's workshop, where he learned painting and draftsmanship. From 1817 to 1818, he travelled throughout the

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

region, making landscape sketches and studies. The following year, he participated in an exhibition at the Künstlergesellschaft (an artists' association) in Zürich. That same year, he made a combination study and business trip to Brussels and Amsterdam. During a subsequent stay in Paris, he met his future wife, Antoinette Trillié. Back in Feuerthalen, he and his older brother took over management of their father's business. In 1824, he started his own publishing company in

Schaffhausen Schaffhausen (; ; ; ; ), historically known in English as Shaffhouse, is a list of towns in Switzerland, town with historic roots, a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in northern Switzerland, and the capital of the canton of Schaffh ...

. Beginning in 1827, he worked on a sequence of prints featuring landscapes and

vedute A ''veduta'' (; : ''vedute'') is a highly detailed, usually large-scale painting or, more often, print of a cityscape or some other vista. The painters of ''vedute'' are referred to as ''vedutisti''. Origins This genre of landscape originated ...

along the Rhein; a project that would occupy him until his death. His major work, ''Voyage pittoresque aux bords du Rhin et de la Suisse'' was published in 1845. The

aquatint Aquatint is an intaglio printmaking technique, a variant of etching that produces areas of tone rather than lines. For this reason it has mostly been used in conjunction with etching, to give both lines and shaded tone. It has also been used ...

s were all colored by hand, using

gouache Gouache (; ), body color, or opaque watercolor is a water-medium paint consisting of natural pigment, water, a binding agent (usually gum arabic or dextrin), and sometimes additional inert material. Gouache is designed to be opaque. Gouach ...

techniques that gave them the appearance of

Old Masters In art history, "Old Master" (or "old master")Old Masters De ...

. In 1833, he had moved his home and fast growing business to Schloss Laufen near the Rheinfall. Many well known, or soon to be well known, artists were employed by his shop, including Egidius Federle, Konrad Corradi and Emanuel Labhardt. In 1838, he made a business trip to St. Petersburg. While there, he contracted a serious illness that left him in poor health. In the following years, his company was nearly ruined, through a combination of new printing techniques and the

Revolutions of 1848 The revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the springtime of the peoples or the springtime of nations, were a series of revolutions throughout Europe over the course of more than one year, from 1848 to 1849. It remains the most widespre ...

. He died on 28 March 1850 in

Laufen-Uhwiesen Laufen-Uhwiesen is a municipality in the district of Andelfingen in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland. History Laufen-Uhwiesen is first mentioned in 858 as ''ad Laufin''. In 1290 it was mentioned as ''ze Uwisan''. Geography Laufen-Uhwiesen ...

References

Sources

Bleuler, Joh. Ludwig.
In: Ulrich Thieme, Felix Becker (Eds.): ''Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart''. Vol.4: Bida–Brevoort. Wilhelm Engelmann, Leipzig 1910, pg.115 * * Johann Ludwig Bleuler: ''Der Rhein von den Quellen bis zur Mündung''. Alexandra Press, Basel 1996, . * Barbara Kemmer: ''Kunstsinn und Geschäftskalkül. Der Rheinfall in den Landschaftsveduten der Bleuler Malschule''. In: Claudia Heitmann (Hrsg.): ''Der Rheinfall. Erhabene Natur und touristische Vermarktung''. Ausst.-Kat. Mittelrhein-Museum Koblenz, Regensburg 2015, S. 55–62.

External links

More works by Bleuler
@ ArtNet * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bleuler, Johann 19th-century Swiss painters Swiss male painters 1792 births 1850 deaths 19th-century Swiss male artists