Albert Anker
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Albert Samuel Anker (1 April 1831 – 16 July 1910) was a Swiss painter and illustrator who has been called the "national painter" of Switzerland because of his enduringly popular depictions of 19th-century Swiss social life.<ref name="Bhattacharya-Stettler">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Dead link</ref><ref>http://www.sikart.ch/page.php?pid=30&name=impressum&lang=enTemplate:Dead link</ref>
LifeEdit
Born in Ins as the son of veterinarian Samuel Anker<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> (then a member of the constituent assembly of the Canton of Bern) Template:Citation needed and Marianne Elisabeth (born Gatschet).<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref> In 1836 his father became veterinarian in Neuchâtel, and the Anker family moved there.<ref name=":1" /> Anker attended school in Neuchâtel, where his teacher in sketching was Frédéric-Wilhelm Moritz.<ref name=":1" /> He and Auguste Bachelin,Template:Citation needed later a fellow artist, took private drawing lessons with Louis Wallinger from 1845 to 1848.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> In 1849 he enrolled into a Gymnasium in Bern, graduating with the Matura in 1851.<ref name=":1" /> Afterwards, he studied theology, beginning in 1851 at the University of Bern and continuing at the University of Halle, Germany.<ref name=":1" /> But in Germany he was inspired by the great art collections, and in 1854 he convinced his father to agree to an artistic career. In Neuchâtel he began using the name Albert, because it was easier to pronounce for his French-speaking classmates.
Anker moved to Paris, where he studied with Charles Gleyre and attended the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in 1855–60.<ref name="Kunstmuseum Mediendokumentation">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He installed a studio in the attic of his parents' house and participated regularly in exhibitions in Switzerland and in Paris.<ref name="Bhattacharya-Stettler"/> Anker married Anna Rüfli in 1864, and they had six children together; the four children who did not die at an early age – Louise, Marie, Maurice and Cécile – appear in some of Anker's paintings. In 1866, he was awarded a gold medal at the Paris Salon for Schlafendes Mädchen im Walde (1865) und Schreibunterricht (1865); in 1878 he was made a knight of the Légion d'honneur.<ref name="Kunstmuseum Mediendokumentation"/> In 1870–74 he was a member of the Grand Council of Bern,<ref name="Kunstmuseum Mediendokumentation"/> where he advocated the construction of the Kunstmuseum Bern.
Apart from his regular wintertime stays in Paris, Anker frequently travelled to Italy and other European countries. In 1889–93 and 1895–98 he was a member of the Swiss Federal Art Commission and in 1900 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Bern.<ref name="Kunstmuseum Mediendokumentation"/> A stroke in 1901 reduced his ability to work. Only after his death in 1910 was there a first exposition dedicated to him, held at the Musée d'art et d'histoire in Neuchâtel.<ref name="Bhattacharya-Stettler"/>
WorksEdit
During his studies, Anker produced a series of works with historical and biblical themes, including paintings of Luther and Calvin.<ref name="Bhattacharya-Stettler"/> Soon after returning to Ins, though, he turned to what would become his signature theme: the everyday life of people in rural communities. His paintings depict his fellow citizens in an unpretentious and plain manner, without idealising country life, but also without the critical examination of social conditions that can be found in the works of contemporaries such as Daumier, Courbet or Millet.<ref name="Bhattacharya-Stettler"/> Although Anker did paint occasional scenes with a social significance, such as visits by usurers or charlatans to the village, his affirmative and idealistic Christian world-view did not include an inclination to issue any sort of overt challenge.<ref name="Bhattacharya-Stettler"/>
Also prominent in Anker's work are the more than 30 still lifes he created. They depict both rural and urban table settings in the tradition of Chardin, their realist solidity reflecting Anker's vision of a harmonic and stable world order.<ref name="Bhattacharya-Stettler"/> In addition, Anker created hundreds of commissioned watercolours and drawings, mostly portraits and illustrations, including for an edition of Jeremias Gotthelf's collected works.<ref name="Bhattacharya-Stettler"/> Between 1866, the year Anker settled to Paris and 1892, Anker also decorated more than 500 faience plates for the Alsatian pottery industrial Théodore Deck.<ref name="Bhattacharya-Stettler"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Anker was quick to reach his artistic objectives and never strayed from his chosen path. His works, though, exude a sense of conciliation and understanding as well as a calm trust in Swiss democracy; they are executed with great skill, providing brilliance to everyday scenes through subtle choices in colouring and lighting.<ref name="Bhattacharya-Stettler"/> Their parochial motives belie the open-mindedness towards contemporary European art and events that Anker's correspondence reflects.<ref name="Bhattacharya-Stettler"/>
ReceptionEdit
Albert Anker's work made him Switzerland's most popular genre painter of the 19th century, and his paintings have continued to enjoy a great popularity due to their general accessibility.<ref name="Bhattacharya-Stettler"/> Indeed, as a student, Anker summed up his approach to art as follows: "One has to shape an idea in one's imagination, and then one has to make that idea accessible to the people."<ref name="Bhattacharya-Stettler"/>
Many Swiss postage stamps and other media have incorporated Anker's work. His studio in Ins has been preserved as a museum by the Albert Anker Foundation. One of Anker's greatest admirers and collectors is former Swiss Federal Councillor Christoph Blocher, since the 1980s Switzerland's most influential conservative politician, who also published an apologetic essay on Anker.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Personal lifeEdit
His brother Rudolf and his mother both died in 1847, when Anker was in Neuchâtel.<ref name=":1" /> His younger sister Louise died in 1852.<ref name=":1" />
GalleryEdit
- Albert Anker - Knabe bei Tisch II (1869).jpg
Boy at Table (Ruedi Anker) by Albert Anker, 1869
- Albert Anker - Strickendes Mädchen, Kleinkind in der Wiege hütend.jpg
Strickendes Mädchen, Kleinkind in der Wiege hütend, 1884
- Albert Anker Die Kinderkrippe.jpg
Die Kinderkrippe, 1890
- Albert Anker Küchenszene.jpg
Küchenszene. 1892.
- Albert Anker - Mädchenbildnis.jpg
(1885)
- Albert Anker - Schulknabe.jpg
1881
- Albert Anker - Knabenbildnis (02).jpg
- Albert Anker - Verwundeter Soldat.jpg
Probably 1870s
- Das Mädchen mit den Dominosteinen by Albert Anker.jpg
Das Mädchen mit den Dominosteinen
- Fleissig--Appliquée by Albert Anker, 1886.jpg
Fleissig / Appliquée, 1886
- Girl Knitting - Albert Anker.png
- Albert Anker - Der Dorfschneider.jpg
The Village Tailor, 1894
- Albert Anker - Böckligumpen (1866).jpg
Böckligumpen, 1866
- Albert Anker - Die Taufe (1864).jpg
Baptism, 1864
- Albert Anker - Das Schulexamen.jpg
Das Schulexamen The school exam, 1862
- Albert Anker - Kinderbegräbnis (1863).jpg
Kinderbegräbnis,1863
- Anker Die kleine Kartoffelschälerin 1886.jpg
Girl peeling potatoes, 1886, oil on canvas
- Reine Berthe et les fileueses, 1888.jpg
Queen Bertha and the Spinners, 1888
ReferencesEdit
BibliographyEdit
- Template:In lang H.A. Lüthy, S. Kuthy, Albert Anker (1980)
- Template:In lang S. Kuthy, T. Bhattacharya-Stettler, Albert Anker, Ölgemälde und Ölstudien (1995)