[1] Born to wealthy parents, Auberjonois lived a jeunesse dorée, studying the classics, starting a banking apprenticeship and serving as a lieutenant of cavalry in the Swiss Army.

The support of a patron, the collector Hans Graber, helped Auberjonois during the 1910s, while in the 1920s he began to acquire a certain public reputation through expositions and prominent commissions.

[1] A second marriage in 1922 with Marguerite Hélène Buvelot fell apart in 1929, as Auberjonois recognised his inability to reconcile his work with a family life.

[1] The Belle du Dézaley mural was very poorly received, causing Auberjonois to become a virtual recluse in his Lausanne studio throughout the 1930s, interrupted only by a brief liaison with his model Simone Hauert.

[1] Afterwards, Auberjonois realised some of his most significant works as a colourist inspired by Delacroix and then Rembrandt, including Hommage à l'Olympia (1943), Baigneuses dans la forêt (1944, Museum zu Allerheiligen, Schaffhausen), Clown et petite écuyère (1946), Portrait de l'artiste (1948, Kunsthaus Aarau), Fille dans la chambre rouge (1948, Museum zu Allerheiligen), Nature morte au crâne (1950) and L'arène jaune (1953–54).

[1] Despite now appearing as a leading and emblematic figure in Swiss art after Ferdinand Hodler, Auberjonois had no clear successors and few students in his time.