Hans Gartmeier
Born in 1910.
Died in 1986.
Hans Gartmeier (1910–1986) created a body of work deeply connected to the Emmental. Born in Langnau, he grew up in Konolfingen, where his family settled when he was a child. After training at the School of Applied Arts in Basel, followed by a period at the Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Arts made possible by a scholarship, he chose painting as his profession.
In 1942, he established his home and studio in Meienried, above Bowil; the view of the Emmental hills would accompany him for more than forty years.
His landscapes and peasant scenes do not claim to record every change of his time. Although tractors had already transformed agricultural work, Gartmeier continued to depict harnessed horses and gestures passed down from generation to generation. The municipality of Langnau emphasises the idealised and romantic aspect of his painting.
The bearded old man smoking a pipe becomes a recurring figure, while portraits and mountain views complete his range of subjects. The precision of the draughtsmanship, deepened in Düsseldorf through the study of the figure and anatomy, serves a pictorial world selected and recomposed rather than a form of reportage.
Alongside painting, he practised etching and lithography and executed a mural for the Ilfis school in Langnau. Part of his studio holdings, which passed through the Hans Ulrich Schwaar Collection, now belongs to the municipality. Since 2026, a group of his works has been available for loan from the Artothek in Langnau: this new circulation places Gartmeier’s images in the homes of the region that inspired them.
Looking at his landscapes also means questioning the rural memory they construct, between observation, attachment and idealisation.
