Ernst Morgenthaler
Born in 1887.
Died in 1962.
Ernst Morgenthaler (born 11 December 1887 in Kleindietwil, Canton of Bern; died 7 September 1962 in Zurich) is presented in the sources as a Swiss painter active throughout the first half of the twentieth century. The reference works consulted describe him as an important representative of figurative painting in Switzerland. According to one of the dossiers, towards the end of the 1920s his work developed towards a reduction of the figurative and towards pictorial areas approaching abstraction.
His documented training began in 1912 with painting classes under Eduard Stiefel at the Kunstgewerbe-Schule (School of Applied Arts) in Zurich. The following year, in 1913, he took lessons with Fritz Burger in Berlin. In 1915, he attended Heinrich Knirr's school of painting in Munich, where one source notes an encounter with Paul Klee.
After a stay outside Switzerland, he lived in Meudon, near Paris, from 1928 to 1931, then returned to settle in Zurich, where he opened a studio in the Höngg district from 1931.
The sources indicate that he worked in a range of genres: landscapes, portraits, still lifes, as well as printmaking and caricature. In 1922, his drawings and caricatures were published in the Swiss magazine Nebelspalter, which notably featured a cover drawing by him that same year. An oil painting dated 1929 and entitled 'Arbre' is mentioned in a commercial catalogue as an example of his work.
Among the exhibition references are his participation in the opening of the Kunsthalle Bern in 1918, as well as presentations recorded at the Kunsthaus Zürich in 1938 and the Kunstmuseum Solothurn in 1945. Institutionally, he is documented as President of the Swiss Federal Art Commission from 1951 to 1953. The biographical notices also identify him as a member of the Swiss Society of Painters and Sculptors (GSMB) and include him in artists' reference works such as SIKART and the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
On a personal level, the sources state that he married Sasha von Sinner, a doll designer, whom he met in 1916 during a stay with Cuno Amiet.
