Benjamin Vautier

Benjamin Vautier studied at Musée Rath and Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Training under Jules Hebert, Jean-Léonard Lugardon and Rudolf Jordan is recorded. Mihály Munkácsy, Carl Sundt-Hansen and Agnes Börjesson are recorded as having studied under Benjamin Vautier. The recorded working language is French. The field of work recorded is genre painting. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are genre. Places of work recorded in the authority are Düsseldorf. Employment is recorded with Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Work by Benjamin Vautier is recorded in the collections of Städel Museum, Museum Kunsthaus Heylshof, Bavarian State Painting Collections, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden and Moravian Gallery in Brno. Distinctions recorded are Order of Franz Joseph, Order of the Red Eagle and Order of Saint Michael.

• Birth Name — Marc Louis Benjamin Vautier • Born — 27 April 1829 • Birthplace — Morges, Switzerland • Place of death — Düsseldorf, Germany • Education — Kunstakademie Düsseldorf • Occupation — Genre painter, Illustrator

He was born in Morges. He was the son of a teacher and began his art studies in Geneva, then worked for two years as a jewelry enamel painter. In 1849, he obtained a position in the studios of history painter Jean-Léonard Lugardon. While there, he also took courses in anatomical drawing at a nearby art school.

He began attending the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in 1849 and became a member of "Malkasten" (Paintbox), a local artists' association. He left the Academy for one year to work with Rudolf Jordan as a private student. Eventually, he decided to devote himself to depicting peasant life, which he observed for several years by visiting the Bernese Oberland. In 1856 he went to Paris but returned to Düsseldorf a year later and painted his first peasant genre pictures. Initially, he focused on Switzerland, but finally decided to concentrate on the Black Forest region. He also worked as an illustrator (Der Oberhof by Karl Leberecht Immermann, Barfüßele by Berthold Auerbach, and others). Later, he became a Royal Professor at the Academy in Düsseldorf.

He died in 1898 in Düsseldorf.

• Illustration — Vautier's Self-Portrait, 1888 • Illustration — Kinder beim Mittagessen (Children at Lunch, 1857)