Ernst Stückelberg (painter)

He was one of the most popular artists of his generation, of the romantic tradition, producing many paintings of various themes (portraits, country and village scenes, and allusions to history), including a series on the Swiss national hero William Tell.

So, after six months with his uncle, encouraged by Jacob Burckhardt, his mother's brother-in-law, he started studies with the portrait painter Johann Friedrich Dietler in Bern, continuing till 1850.

From rather cramped quarters, he painted iconic Swiss historical themes, the best-known being: Melchtal returns to his blinded father (Landenberg's behest), The Sheriffs of Sarnen, The lady falconer, A girl in middle-age costume and Stauffacher's wife (calling her in-laws to fight for freedom), which last was purchased by the Confederation.

Returning for a short time to Basel, he painted King Henry II and Queen Cunigunde of Luxemburg (1855) on glass in the Minster, and Young upper class lady with a falcon (1856).

He then set off for five months in Florence, and, encouraged insistently by Burckhardt, in Easter 1857 he left for Rome where he met old friends from Antwerp and Munich, Franz Dieber, Arnold Böcklin, Rudolf Henneberg and Anselm Feuerbach.

For some time he stayed with Fritz Simon at the house of Teresina Reinhardt at the Via della quattro Fontane 53, but during the heat of summer preferred to retreat to the country (as he had done from Munich) and establish himself in the Monti Sabini.

With his painter friend Rudolf Koller, Stückelberg travelled to his homes in Meiringen and Hasliberg, and also to Paris and Cologne, and with Professor Bernoulli, his aunt's brother, to Haarlem, Zandvoort, the Hague, Leyden, Antwerp, Brussels, and Treves.

A number of other important works also date from this time: A Young Italian, Woman from Haslital with a jug in her hand (1860), Baptismal procession in Upper Wallis, Procession of Madonna of the Mountain (1861), The children's service, Girl with a cat on the arm, Faust & Gretchen (1862), The Pilgrims of Pereto (1863), and Portrait of Colonel Rudolf Merian-Iselin (1864) - who as president of the Swiss Society of Arts, Stückelberg tried and failed to persuade to set up a Swiss Art School.

The painting that he had worked on in his studio in the house, The Painter's Family (1872), was shown at the World Exhibition of Vienna in 1873 and gained him the Knight's Cross of the Imperial Order of Franz-Joseph.

He then proceeded over a period of 18 months between 1873 and 1874 to cover the walls of the Erimanshof with frescoes; these depicted the virtues Charity, Wisdom, Prudence, Diligence and Truth as feminine figures in alcoves, surrounded by decorative musical instruments, fruits, and animals.

Wisdom was portrayed as a blonde teaching a boy to read his first word, amo, and Love as Marie-Elisabeth in an Italian hairstyle, with a child in her arms and two playing in the folds of her dress.

Three more children, Gertrude (December 1871), Vico (1872), and Adrien (April 1874), were born to the family, and Stückelberg produced more works, The love figure merchant (1872), At the fountain of Rocca Ceri (1874) and The Butterfly Catcher (1875).

[7] In the same year, Stückelberg beat Joseph Balmer to win an open competition to re-decorate the Tellskapelle on the Lake of Four Cantons, which had fallen into disrepair, a prize worth CHF 50,000.

These and several members of his family appear in four scenes, 'The Swearing on the Rütli', 'The Apple Shot', 'The Leap from the Boat', and 'Gessler's Death', based on Schiller's play, recounting the saga of Wilhelm Tell, an original freedom fighter for Swiss Independence.

After some acrimonious argument, mainly relating to costs, Stückelberg relented and re-drew the fresco to the satisfaction of the Uri politicians, with the three leaders standing (as traditionally symbolized) despite his artistic reservations.

During this time, he also managed to complete a commission for Peter Conradin von Planta, which is probably his best known work, 'The last Knight of the Hohenrätien plunges into the Depths of the Via Mala', and hangs in the Federal Gallery of Chur.

Here he was inspired to paint, virtually without halt, many landscapes and also major works demonstrating the maturity of his art, 'The Cypresses of the Villa D'Este', 'The Cliffs of Capri', 'View of Assisi' 'Violinist of Anticoli', 'A Melody of Oceans', 'The blissful ones', 'Jean de Souabe the penitent parricide', 'Pilgrim in the Abbruzzo'(1888).

However, in the autumn of 1890, his sister, to whom he was very close, died, and Stückelberg's art retreated into a contemplative mode: he drew portraits, and only three major works in the following six years: 'Death & Life', 'The Graveyard', 'Those cut off', but these full of depth of interpretation.