Ernst Georg Rüegg
Born in 1883.
Died in 1948.
Two paintings held by the Kunstmuseum Solothurn open a window onto the work of Ernst Georg Rüegg (1883–1948). In Rheinlandschaft mit Rüdlingen (1943), an oil on canvas measuring 51.5 × 76 cm, the title situates the scene on the Rhine. Scheue Tiere nähern sich dem entvölkerten Dorfe (1943–1945), also painted in oil, evokes through its title the approach of animals towards a depopulated village.
The museum states that this second work, like the first from the Josef Müller Foundation, is on display.
The artist can also be approached through the traces of his work. SIK-ISEA’s Swiss Art Archives preserve part of his estate, donated in 1985 by Irène Rüegg: chiefly 33 sketchbooks and numerous manuscripts, but also correspondence, photographic studies and personal teaching materials. This body of material makes it possible to relate the finished paintings to practices of drawing, writing and transmission.
The two works in Solothurn and the archives offer concrete points of entry, without by themselves making it possible to reconstruct the entirety of his artistic career.
