Émile Bressler
Born in 1886.
Died in 1966.
Émile Bressler (1886–1966) belongs to the generation of painters who animated Geneva’s art scene at the beginning of the twentieth century. This gathering brought together different personalities, united by the desire to show their work in a city where galleries and institutions were becoming essential places of encounter. From 1915 onwards, Bressler exhibited at the Kunsthaus Zürich alongside Arnold Fiechter, Käthe Kollwitz and artists of the Walze.
Two paintings held at the Kunsthaus shed light on his interest in the human figure: Portrait de jeune fille and Dame avec tasse de thé. Their titles invite us to view the portrait as an encounter with a presence and a moment of everyday life. The second painting entered the Zurich collection in 1929; the first, held on long-term loan for many years, became part of the museum permanently through a bequest in 1944.
This early presence in a collection outside Geneva reminds us that Bressler was not confined to the local circle.
The Geneva archives also reveal the continuity of his exhibitions. He was included in a presentation at the Musée Rath in 1934 alongside Arthur Morard, while the files of the Société des Arts preserve a record of a Bressler exhibition among the activities of the first half of the century. The Musée d’art et d’histoire de Genève subsequently included him in L’Esprit de Hodler, an exhibition that set artists contemporary with the master alongside more recent works.
To follow Bressler through these works and documents is to rediscover a painter within a lively network of studios, groups and collections, extending from Geneva across the rest of Switzerland.
