Peter Robert Berry
Peter Robert Berry (born September 11, 1864 in St. Moritz ; † November 14, 1942 there ) was a doctor and painter from St. Moritz in the canton of Graubünden .
Life
Peter Robert Berry was born as the eldest son of the Chur doctor Peter Berry I and his wife Cecilia Berry-Stoppani. Peter Berry came to St. Moritz on the advice of his brother-in-law, the hotelier Johannes Badrutt , and was one of the first spa doctors to work in the New Kurhaus, which opened in 1864.
Berry attended - together with Andrea Robbi - the canton school in Chur, after which he studied medicine at the universities of Zurich , Bern, Heidelberg and Leipzig. After his dissertation he worked for a short time at a London hospital; In 1892 he became the head doctor of the “Heilquellen-Gesellschaft” in St. Moritz-Bad.
In 1895 he became engaged to the American Kitty Spalding, gave up his position as a spa doctor and continued his education in Paris and Berlin. The engagement was dissolved after a year and Berry returned to the Engadin.
In November 1898, Berry vehemently opposed plans to turn St. Moritz into a health resort for tuberculosis sufferers in a detailed letter to the St. Moritz community. He feared that the sporty, sophisticated public and other summer visitors would fear contagion and stay away. Instead, he called for the "wellness offer", such as spa treatments, which flourished in summer to be extended to winter. The reputation of a health resort would ruin the posh spa town of St. Moritz: Either sport or bacilli.
In 1898 Berry met the painter Giovanni Segantini , whose project of an Engadine panorama for the Paris World Exhibition in 1900 he was very supportive of. At that time Berry wanted to paint himself. Dissatisfied with his own experiments with colored pencils and pastel colors, he turned to his friend Giovanni Giacometti in 1898 and asked him to introduce him to the art of painting with oil. Giacometti, however, was prevented and put Berry off for the winter. But he supported his friend in his desire to paint, which Berry confirmed in his decision to become a painter.
One of Berry's first large oil paintings was created between the winter of 1899 and 1901. It is entitled Christmas Eve and, like other early works by Berry, is heavily influenced by Giovanni Segantini's choice of motifs and Divisionist painting technique.
In 1900 Berry began to study painting at the Académie Julian in Paris, probably on the advice of his friends Giacometti and Andrea Robbi, who had previously attended the school. In 1901/1902 he learned precise drawing at Heinrich Knirr's school in Munich and at the same time took courses at the veterinary faculty, where he studied equine anatomy. In the following years he continued his education in Paris at the Académie Julian and the Académie von Montparnasse.
Between 1905 and 1914 Berry spent many winters on the Julier and Bernina passes , where he painted in the wild and in the evenings in the accommodation in the hospice played or read on the piano he had brought with him; likes works by Friedrich Nietzsche , whom he met in St. Moritz. Often his brother helped him carry a paint box, pictures and easel.
In 1907 Berry made the acquaintance of Ferdinand Hodler , who was in the Engadine at the time. He, too, is said to have reaffirmed him in sticking to painting. In 1918, when the Spanish flu broke out , Berry worked again as a doctor, but otherwise he devoted himself exclusively to painting.
Peter Robert Berry died on November 14, 1942 in St. Moritz. His works were only shown after his death in 1945 as part of a memorial exhibition in the Bündner Kunstmuseum in Chur.
Berry was married to Maria Rocco since 1908. One of his sons also works as a doctor and painter in St. Moritz and his granddaughter Marietta Gianella-Berry also became a painter.
Berry Museum
The "Villa Arona" was built around 1904 according to plans by Nicolaus Hartmann (1880–1956) by Berry's brother Johannes, a dentist who lived in it with his family. In the Berry Museum, opened in 2004 in the center of St. Moritz, numerous works by Berry are on display, most of which are family-owned. In addition to the pictures, Berry's extensive estate is also kept in the museum. It consists of books, letters, notes, diaries, music and numerous documents relating to the establishment and development of the St. Moritz health resort.
literature
- Peter Robert Berry: 34 art card guides with texts. St. Moritz 2004.
- Peter Robert Berry: About the future of the health resort St. Moritz. St. Moritz 1898.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Peter Robert Berry: About the future of the health resort St. Moritz. St. Moritz 1898.
- ^ Website Marietta Gianella
- ↑ Berry Museum museen-graubuenden.ch
- ↑ Berry Museum on Engadin, St. Moritz.ch
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Berry, Peter Robert |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swiss doctor and painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 11, 1864 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | St. Moritz |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 14, 1942 |
| Place of death | St. Moritz |