BENJAMIN I. VAUTIER
Danish 1829-1898
Biography
AVAILABLE WORKS
SELECT SOLD
Benjamin I. Vautier was born to a pastor in Morges, Switzerland on April 27th, 1829. He was a genre painter and illustrator and became well known for his paintings depicting farmers and rural life.
Vautier was born to a respectable family and received a good education. He showed a great interest in art early in life, beginning his art studies in Geneva and then working as an enamel painter for jewellery for two years. He studied with Jules Hebert, and then went into the studio of Jean Leonard Lugardon, a master of historical paintings, watercolour and portraiture. He also worked in the studio of Rudolf Jordon.
Artists Benjamin Vautier and Franz von Defregger became representatives of a movement in the 1840s to bring equality to peasants, and works depicting rural life took a great upswing in popularity. In 1853, Vautier visited the Bernese Highlands which greatly inspired his interest in this theme. Vautier visited Paris in 1845 but returned to Geneva, where he continued to produce 4 or 5 paintings a year, focusing especially on scenes of the Black Forest and Alsace. Vautier also produced many illustrations during this time. In 1858 He returned to Dusseldorf and married a young woman from that city. The same year he received success at the historical exhibition in Munich. He became a Royal Professor at the Academy in Dusseldorf.
The Danish collectors Pauline and Heinrich Hirschsprung visited Vautier in Dusseldorf in 1878 on their way to the World Fair in Paris. Two years later, in 1880, the couple arranged an exhibition in Copenhagen showing photographs after Vautier’s paintings.
One of Vautier’s biographers Adolphe Rosenberg remarks that despite being French, Vautier was exemplary in capturing the character of Germanic life in both appearance, and meticulous detail. He excelled at placing his subjects in their natural space whether within an exterior landscape, cityscape, castles or intimate interiors, and captured each individual’s distinct role, profession, and character. He passed away in Dusseldorf in 1898.