Frank Buchser

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Frank Buchser
Frank Buchser

Frank Buchser , born as Franz Buchser (born August 15, 1828 in Feldbrunnen-St. Niklaus , Canton Solothurn ; † November 22, 1890 there ) was a Swiss painter and adventurer.

Life

Frank Buchser was the son of the farmer, horse dealer and landlord Niklaus Josef Buchser, who died at an early age, and his wife Anna Maria, née Walker. He completed an apprenticeship as an organ and piano builder in Solothurn and Bern and took drawing lessons from the Bern artist Heinrich von Arx , a student of Martin Distelis . In 1847 he decided to become a painter after a stay with Jean-Victor Schnetz, who was related to him, in Paris and a subsequent journey to Florence and Rome. He served in the papal Swiss Guard , which enabled him to study painting at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome. In 1848 he briefly joined Garibaldi's troops . From 1849 to 1850 he studied in Paris, from 1850 to 1852 in Antwerp with Gustave Wappers . From 1852 to 1853 he traveled to Spain, where he attracted attention as a painter and draftsman with the self-portrait Los tres Amigos .

Even after 1853 he preferred to seek his field of activity far away, so he was again in Spain in 1857 and 1860 and several times in England, where in 1862 he was commissioner of the Swiss art department at the World Exhibition in London. Personal highlights of his travels were a ride to the royal city of Fez in Morocco in 1858 and from May 1866 to May 1871 his stay in the USA and Canada, where he a. a. Johann August Sutter portrayed. In late 1866 and early 1867 he caused quite a stir there with his socially critical paintings of blacks and Indians in Washington and New York . The years 1873 to 1884 were again marked by intensive travel activities; mainly to Italy, France (1875 in Barbizon ), England, Spain, Morocco and Greece. His deteriorating health forced him to adopt a more sedentary lifestyle in the 1880s. Buchser spent the last years of his life mainly in the local field well, where he taught Cuno Amiet from 1884 .

During his regular stays in Switzerland, Buchser pursued both artistic and political interests. From 1864, for example, he served briefly as Ammann von Feldbrunnen. In 1865 he founded an artists' association with Rudolf Koller and Ernst Stückelberg , which later became the Society of Swiss Painters, Sculptors and Architects (GSMBA). In the last years of his life he campaigned for a reform of the exhibition system and at the same time paved the way for the federal decree of 1887 to promote and promote Swiss art. From 1888 to 1890 he was a member of the Federal Art Commission . Buchser was a Freemason .

Like Frank Buchser, Max Leu is also buried in the St. Niklaus cemetery in Feldbrunnen near Solothurn . Leu also created the grave bust for Buchser.

Buchser's stylistically diverse life's work comprises around 1000 oil paintings, around 300 of which are actual paintings. The rest are mostly independent oil sketches, often executed with quick, spirited strokes, which demonstrate the artist's pronounced sense of color and lighting.

Frank Buchser (1828–1890) painter. Dig. Feldbrunnen-St. Niklaus, Solothurn
Dig. Cemetery Feldbrunnen-St. Niklaus

The most important groups of works can be found in the Kunstmuseum Solothurn (80 paintings) and in the Kunstmuseum Basel (over 1000 oil sketches, drawings and watercolors as well as sketchbooks). Buchser had allocated his estate to these collections, with Solothurn receiving the paintings and Basel receiving the study material. In the Print Room of the Basel Kunstmuseum have since been kept well over 200 photographs from the 1850s to the 1880s, the Buchser had acquired in his extensive travels as a source of inspiration and reference material. In 2014, a private museum for the artist was opened in Bettlach SO .

Great merits as a "Buchser researcher" can be attributed to Gottfried Wälchli . A catalog raisonné does not yet exist. In 2019, Bruno Moll realized the film “The Song of Mary Blane”, a cinematic approach to Frank Buchser's life.

Works (selection)

  • Johann August Sutter , 1866, 69.5 × 54.5 cm

  • Asceticism and lust for life , 1865, 102 × 153 cm

  • The kiss , 1878, 70 × 101 cm

  • Il divino porcaio , 1882, 64 × 110.5 cm

literature

Web links

Commons : Frank Buchser  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Frank Buchser  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Hans A. Lüthy, et al .: From Anker to Zünd - Art in the Young Federal State 1848–1900 . Ed .: Christian Klemm. Scheidegger & Spiess / Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich 1998, ISBN 3-906574-00-8 , p. 394 .
  2. ↑ Freemasons Solothurn ( Memento of the original from October 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.freimaurer-solothurn.ch
  3. ↑ Christoph Vögele: Extension for the Solothurn Art Museum. Motivation and Perspectives. (PDF; 64 kB)
  4. ↑ Paul H. Boerlin: Frank Buchser 1828-1890. Photos. Public art collection, Basel 1990, p. 8.
  5. ^ Gudula Metze: From Arcadia to Atlanta. Photographs from the estate of Frank Buchser (1828–1890). Exhibition cat. Kunstmuseum Basel, Kupferstichkabinett, June 6 to September 13, 2009, Kerber, Bielefeld / Leipzig 2009.
personal data
SURNAME Buchser, Frank
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Buchser, Franz (birth name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss painter and adventurer
DATE OF BIRTH August 15, 1828
PLACE OF BIRTH Feldbrunnen-St. Niklaus , Canton of Solothurn
DATE OF DEATH November 22, 1890
Place of death Feldbrunnen-St. Niklaus , Canton of Solothurn