Cuno Amiet
Cuno Amiet Peter ( born March 28, 1868 in Solothurn, † July 6, 1961 in Oschwand, community Seeberg BE) was a Swiss painter, illustrator, graphic artist and sculptor, who joined the Dresden artist group Die Brücke.
He is often referred to as " the Swiss Bonnard ". He was influenced by the painters of the Post-Impressionism, including Paul Gauguin, Émile Bernard and Paul Sérusier.
Life
Family
Cuno Amiet was the son of Josef Ignaz Amiet (1827-1895), writer and statesman State Archivist of Solothurn. Cuno had two older siblings, sister Rosa (1858-1936) and brother Caesar ( 1861-1935 ). After the early death of the mother of the father of 1873 Emilie Bear Rifferswil married on Albis. In 1882 Amiet at Heinrich Jenny drawing lessons. In the summer of 1884 he met the painter Frank Buchser, a friend of his father, the desire of his son gave, after some hesitation, to become a painter. In the fall of 1886, he traveled with the watercolourist Paul Demme ( 1866-1953 ) to Munich to study at the Academy. Among his teachers were Caspar Ritter, Gabriel von Hackl, Karl Raupp and Nicholas Gysi.
Academy time
As a young Solothurn Amiet moved with almost 20 years after Munich, which was next to Paris one of the two largest teaching centers of painting at that time. 1887 Amiet met there his peer Swiss painter Giovanni Giacometti from Stampa, with whom he entertained a lifelong friendship. He was godfather to his eldest son, Alberto Giacometti.
In Munich they belonged to the Swiss circle around Franz Baur, Max Buri, Wilhelm Balmer, Emil Dill, Walter Mettler, Charles Welti, among others Cuno Amiet and Giovanni Giacometti opted to continue their education in Paris at the Académie Julian on the side of Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard, Maurice Denis and Paul Sérusier, where they arrived in October, 1888. Among his teachers was Paris, among others, Tony Robert -Fleury. Together with Félix Vallotton he joined a symbolist artist group the Nabis ( Hebrew " the chosen one " ) was called. Amiet's family had little money, and the father rendered great sacrifices in order to allow his son to stay in Brittany.
Pont -Aven
In May 1892 Amiet traveled to Pont -Aven, a fishing village in Brittany, which had become by staying Paul Gauguin's an attraction for young artists, where he remained until June 1893. There he came with works by Gauguin, who had already embarked on his first Tahiti Travel in contact. His friends included the painter Paul Sérusier Roderic O'Conor and from Ireland, the Amiet in the art of Van Gogh, the Divisionists of Seurat and the use of pure colors introduced.
1893 was the first meeting with Ferdinand Hodler, he then visited in his studio in Bern and the symbolist painting, he was influenced. 1895 died Amiet's father. In 1896 he met during a summer stay with Giacometti in Stampa the painter Giovanni Segantini know whose Divisionists had influenced him next to the Post - Impressionism since 1893. 1898 was an exhibition of Giacometti and Hodler at the Künstlerhaus in Zurich.
Marriage
On 16 June 1898 he married the landlord's daughter Anna slut from Hellsau. His sister Rosa and Giacometti were groomsmen. In the same year Amiet moved with his wife to the Oschwand, 1908 where he had built a house there. The couple had no children, but raised other people's children, including Bruno Hesse, the oldest of the three sons of the poet and writer Hermann Hesse, after he had separated from his first wife Maria Bernoulli and just could not bring up the children for health reasons.
1904 Amiet was involved again at the Secession in Vienna with Hodler. 1905 was an exhibition at the Galerie Richter held in Dresden. She was a failure, but thus he came into contact with the future members of the expressionist artist group "Die Brücke ".
In 1919 he was awarded by the Faculty philosophical- historical Bern University honorary doctorate.
Following the artists of the "bridge"
Some young painters in Germany found the works Amiets related to their own work: with appreciative words Erich Heckel told him to, therefore, the short time before to join Fritz Bleyl, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Karl Schmidt- Rottluff and he founded in Dresden Artist Group: " admiration and enthusiasm we have seen your work, and we take the liberty to ask you if you want to join our group "bridge". Unanimously we have recognized in you one of " our men " and hope that you will support our cause aspiration according to the same artistic goals. " Amiet told. It is very significant for Amiet's unique position in that he was a member of both Gauguin's circle at Pont -Aven and the "bridge", the first group merger of German Expressionism.
Last third of life
As the summer of 1931 during the fire of the Munich Glass Palace fifty paintings Amiet, especially a large number of his early works, a prey to the flames - a disaster of such magnitude, as she had never met an artist in a similar way - was the master of this blow not discouraged, but encouraged only in the intent to compensate by new creations for the loss. In 1944 he became an honorary member of the Art Association of Solothurn.
Anna died in 1953 Amiet. The adopted daughter Lydia Thalmann, in turn, widow, returned to care for her father during the next few years. Amiet's 90th birthday in 1958 was celebrated with an exhibition at the art gallery Wolfsberg in Zurich and a comprehensive retrospective at the Kunsthalle Bern. Amiet one of those artists who remained creative and active into old age. At the end of the year Amiet was sick again. This time he did not recover, and he died in the summer of 1961.