Albert Locca
Born in 1895.
Died in 1966.
Albert Locca (1895–1966) was a painter whose early output belongs to a realist register—nudes, female figures, still lifes and landscapes—and is distinguished by precise, rigorous draughtsmanship. He attended the evening classes at the École d'art de La Chaux-de-Fonds, directed by Charles L'Eplattenier, where he studied drawing and painting under Léon Perrin and William Stauffer; Le Corbusier is mentioned as a fellow student. Having lost his father during adolescence and obliged to help support his family, he initially worked as a house painter, an experience that the source notes left a mark of meticulousness perceptible in his painted work.
Through contact with the Barraud brothers, he devoted himself entirely to painting from 1930 onwards.
He exhibited regularly in Neuchâtel and La Chaux-de-Fonds, organised open-air presentations (notably in the courtyard of the municipal building), and took part in the artistic exhibitions of the Comptoir; before the war, his participations included events in Pontarlier, in Paris in 1934, and an appearance at the Salon des artistes français. Settling in Neuchâtel in 1938, drawn by the landscapes along the lakeshore, he also made several stays in the Midi and, in 1950, a stay in Venice, which the source describes as a moment when he «would discover his country of origin» (wording of the source).
