Karl Stauffer, known as Karl Stauffer-Bern (2 September 1857,

Trubschachen Trubschachen (High Alemannic: ''Truebschache'') is a municipality in the administrative district of Emmental in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. History Trubschachen is first mentioned in 1667 as ''Trueberschachen''. The municipality grew ...

– 24 January 1891, Florence) was a Swiss painter, etcher and sculptor.

Life

His father was a

curate A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' () of souls of a parish. In this sense, ''curate'' means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy who are as ...

and pastor in Bern. He studied at the

Academy of Fine Arts, Munich The Academy of Fine Arts, Munich (, also known as Munich Academy) is one of the oldest and most significant art academies in Germany. It is located in the Maxvorstadt district of Munich, in Bavaria, Germany. In the second half of the 19th centur ...

under Feodor Dietz and

Ludwig von Löfftz Ludwig von Löfftz (21 June 1845 – 3 December 1910) was a German genre and landscape painter. Biography He was born at Darmstadt. He was a pupil of August von Kreling and Karl Raupp at Nuremberg, then of Wilhelm von Diez at the Academy ...

. Later, he worked in Berlin as a portrait painter, where he had many notable people as subjects. Then, he studied etching and engraving with Peter Halm. He was also a teacher at the Berlin School for Women Artists,Spartacus Educational: Biography
/ref> where his students included

Käthe Kollwitz Käthe Kollwitz ( born Schmidt; 8 July 186722 April 1945) was a German artist who worked with painting, printmaking (including etching, lithography and woodcuts) and sculpture. Her most famous art cycles, including ''The Weavers'' and ''The Peasa ...

Hedwig Weiß Hedwig Weiß (25 May 1860, Königsberg - 1923, Berlin) was a German painter and graphic artist. Her works are primarily Impressionistic in style. Biography Her father, Bernhard Weiss, Bernhard Weiß, was an Evangelical theologian. Her mother, ...

and Clara Siewert. In 1888, under the sponsorship of his patrons, the Welti family, he went to Rome to study sculpture. While there, he began an affair with

Lydia Welti-Escher Lydia Welti Escher, (née Lydia Escher, 10 July 1858 in Zürich-Enge – 12 December 1891 in Genève-Champel) was a Swiss patron of the arts. Lydia Escher was one of the richest women in Switzerland in the 19th century, a patron of the arts who ...

, daughter of

Alfred Escher Johann Heinrich Alfred Escher vom Glas colloquially Alfred Escher (20 February 1819 – 6 December 1882) was a Swiss business magnate, banker, railway pioneer and politician who most notably served on the National Council from 1848 to 1882 for th ...

(railway magnate and co-founder of

Credit Suisse Credit Suisse Group AG (, ) was a global Investment banking, investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland. According to UBS, eventually Credit Suisse was to be fully integrated into UBS. While the integration ...

) and wife of Friedrich Emil Welti, whose father was

Emil Welti Friedrich Emil Welti known as Emil Welti (23 April 1825 – 24 February 1899) was a Swiss politician, lawyer and judge. From 1856 to 1866, he was a member of the government of the canton of Aargau and, beginning in 1857, the Council of States. In ...

(a powerful government minister). The affair turned to love and a divorce from Welti was proposed, but he contacted the Swiss Embassy in Rome and used his considerable influence to separate them. Lydia was placed in an insane asylum and Karl was jailed after being charged with kidnapping and rape. In May 1890, a full psychiatric report showed no sign of mental illness and she was released. His release followed in June, due to lack of evidence. She was returned to her husband, although she soon filed for a divorce, which was eventually granted. In a state of despondency over the loss of his love, he suffered a nervous breakdown and spent some time in the . After his release, he attempted suicide by gun. The shot barely missed his heart and left him permanently injured. In January 1891, unable to work and apparently suffering from

persecution mania ''Persecution Mania'' is the second studio album by German thrash metal band Sodom, released on 1 December 1987 by Steamhammer/SPV. The album marked the beginning of the change in sound from having elements of thrash metal, speed metal and bla ...

, he committed suicide with an overdose of

chloral hydrate Chloral hydrate is a geminal diol with the formula . It was first used as a sedative and hypnotic in Germany in the 1870s. Over time it was replaced by safer and more effective alternatives but it remained in use in the United States until at ...

. Lydia's suicide by gas followed that December. The

tone poem A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music, usually in a single continuous movement (music), movement, which illustrates or evokes the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting, landscape, or other (non-musical) source. T ...

An Alpine Symphony ''An Alpine Symphony'' (''Eine Alpensinfonie''), Op. 64, is a tone poem for large orchestra written by German composer Richard Strauss which premiered in 1915. It is one of Strauss's largest non-operatic works; the score calls for about 12 ...

'' by

Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; ; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer and conductor best known for his Tone poems (Strauss), tone poems and List of operas by Richard Strauss, operas. Considered a leading composer of the late Roman ...

(1915), was originally conceived as a musical portrait of Stauffer-Bern,''Richard Strauss' Alpensinfonie: Entstehung, Analyse und Interpretation''
by Rainer Bayreuther. G.Olms (1997) although Strauss later denied that there were any direct biographical references.

Selected portraits

File:Lydia Welti.jpg, Lydia Welti-Escher
(date unknown) File:Karl Stauffer-Bern Conrad Ferdinand Meyer 1887.jpg,

Conrad Ferdinand Meyer Conrad Ferdinand Meyer (11 October 1825 – 28 November 1898) was a Swiss poet and historical novelist, a master of literary realism who is mainly remembered for stirring narrative ballads like "Die Füße im Feuer" (The Feet in the Fire). Biog ...

(1887) File:Stauffer-Bern GottfriedKeller.jpg,

Gottfried Keller Gottfried Keller (19 July 1819 – 15 July 1890) was a Swiss poet and writer of German literature. Best known for his novel '' Green Henry'' (German: ''Der grüne Heinrich'') and his cycle of novellas called '' Seldwyla Folks'' (''Die Leute von Se ...

(1886) File:Gustav Freytag by Karl Stauffer-Bern 1886-1887.jpg,

Gustav Freytag Gustav Freytag (; 13 July 1816 – 30 April 1895) was a German novelist and playwright. Life Freytag was born in Kreuzburg (Kluczbork) in Silesia. After attending the school at Oels (Oleśnica), he studied philology at the universities of ...

(1887) File:Karl Stauffer-Bern Adolph von Menzel.jpg,

Adolph von Menzel Adolph Friedrich Erdmann von Menzel (8 December 18159 February 1905) was a German Realist artist noted for drawings, etchings, and paintings. Along with Caspar David Friedrich, he is considered one of the two most prominent German painters of t ...

(1885)

References

External links

Arcadja Auctions: More works by Stauffer-Bern
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stauffer, Karl 19th-century Swiss painters Swiss male painters 1857 births 1891 deaths 1890s suicides 19th-century Swiss male artists

Life

Selected portraits

References

Further reading

External links