Mili Weber

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mili Weber , Berta Emilie Weber (born March 1, 1891 in Biel ; † July 11, 1978 in St. Moritz ) was a Swiss artist who was best known for her pictures of flower children. She designed her own wonder world and created a real total work of art in her “fairytale house” above Lake St. Moritz .

Life

Youth in Biel

Mili Weber grew up in Biel as the youngest with three brothers and two half-sisters. Berta Emilie, known as Mili, spent “sunny” childhood days in this large family. All of the siblings showed artistic talents early on. All of them had a talent for painting and drawing, four of the six children later took up artistic professions.

The Weber family came from the canton of Aargau . The father, Adolf Weber, married the widow Anna Haller-Gloor, who brought the two daughters Frieda (* 1870) and Anna (* 1872) into the marriage. Her half-sister Anna Haller, 19 years her senior, was of particular importance for Mili Weber's human and artistic development. She had attended the arts and crafts school in Biel and later taught various arts and crafts subjects there. Above all, she had made a name for herself as a flower painter. Following the example of her sister, Mili Weber also wanted to become a painter. So she attended the kindergarten teachers' seminar in Bern , which lasted a year at the time. She got on very well with the children, but the school's drawing teacher encouraged her to paint - many kindergartens could still run, but few paint like her. Anna Haller introduced Mili Weber to one of her artist friends, the painter Julius Vögtli . But the best teacher for Mili Weber was Anna Haller herself.

Years of study in Munich

It was Anna Haller who urged Mili Weber to take up further training at a painting academy in Munich . She knew Munich because she worked with a publisher there and had been in that city as early as 1905. It was not easy to find a painting school because the art academy was not open to women at the time. They were made aware of Heinrich Knirr's painting school through a friend . Knirr recognized the talent of his new student and predicted that she would either be a portraitist or a fairy tale painter. This fertile period from 1912 to 1914 came to an abrupt end when the First World War broke out. Weber and Haller returned to Switzerland.

St. Moritz

The Mili Weber House
Feeding places for the deer next to the Mili-Weber-Haus

Her brother Emil Weber, an architect, had been working for Nicolaus Hartmann Sr.'s renowned architecture office and construction company in St. Moritz for a long time . Emil Weber and his work in St. Moritz were ultimately the reason that the entire Weber family moved from Biel to St. Moritz in 1917. Before that, Emil Weber and his father built a house above the eastern end of Lake St. Moritz, largely independently. As modest as the house - a creative mixture of Engadine and Walser styles - looks from the outside, it is imaginative from the inside. The architectural concept with the clever room layout on different levels, the vaulted ceilings and the beautifully crafted built-in cupboards shows Brother Emil to be a master.

Mili Weber lived and worked in St. Moritz from 1917 until her death in 1978. In addition to painting - her main work consists of watercolors - she wrote stories and composed songs and an oratorio . She had a special relationship with the animals of the forest, especially with deer and deer, with squirrels and all the birds. About her experiences with an injured fawn, she wrote a little book in the Bernese dialect, Vom Rehli Fin . But not only the deer, but also the hungry deer let her pet and feed them. Her love for nature, nurtured from childhood, grew into an exceptional approach to animals and plants.

plant

Mili Weber House - now a museum

The painter Mili Weber designed her own wonder world all her life and created a real total work of art in her house. She lived in this “fairytale house” for 60 years, which is now maintained by a foundation and run as a museum. Flower children shine from their colorful watercolors, in the castle room the painted ceiling depicts the four seasons and a room-filling dollhouse tells the story of a princely family. In addition to painting and making works in the large dollhouse, Weber also made music and began to compose. On the top floor, next to the bear room, a two-manual house organ with a pedal fills an entire room.

The house with its small rooms can only be visited with a guide. Access by car is not permitted.

Works

  • Mili Weber: Vom Rehli Fin. (Swiss German). Verlag Gammeter, St. Moritz 2002, ISBN 3-9520540-4-6 .
  • Mili Weber: Happy fairy tales. (German edition) Desertina, 1998, ISBN 3-85637221-0 .
  • Mili Weber: Fairy Rhymes: Rhymes by the little teddy bear appearing on the first page. (English edition) Desertina, 1998, ISBN 3-85637245-8
  • Dora Lardelli, Mili Weber: exhibition catalog. Segantini Museum St. Moritz 1991, ISBN 3-9520540-2-X .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Marcella Maier: Mili Weber - message of nature . Ed .: Mili Weber Foundation, St. Moritz. Desertina, Disentis 1990.
  2. ↑ Mili Weber: Vom Rehli Fin . Ed .: Mili Weber Foundation. Gammeter Verlag AG, St. Moritz 2002, ISBN 3-9520540-4-6 .
  3. ^ Lardelli Dora: exhibition catalog . Ed .: Mili Weber Foundation. Gammeter, St. Moritz 1991, ISBN 3-9520540-2-X .
personal data
SURNAME Weber, Mili
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Weber, Berta Emilie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss artist
DATE OF BIRTH March 1, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Biel , Switzerland
DATE OF DEATH July 11, 1978
Place of death St. Moritz , Switzerland