Sophie L’Eplattenier
Born in 1876.
Died in 1956.
Sophie Berthe L’Eplattenier (1876–1956) was a Swiss painter and ceramicist. She died in Les Geneveys-sur-Coffrane, where she lived until the end of her life. Although she practised painting, it is her ceramics, exhibited nationally, that most frequently recur in the available documentation.
Her decorative designs — compositions of flowers and animals hand-painted on porcelain and faience — belong to the Art Nouveau aesthetic and to the «style sapin» developed in La Chaux-de-Fonds. She was one of the sisters of Charles L'Eplattenier, a name frequently associated with the decorative revival in the region.
Attendance at the École d'art de La Chaux-de-Fonds is mentioned in the sources in the form «aurait fréquenté», a wording that retains the nuance of uncertainty. In 1913, she was appointed professor of drawing at the École des travaux féminins in La Chaux-de-Fonds, and subsequently worked as a teacher in Les Geneveys-sur-Coffrane (Val-de-Ruz). The documentation indicates that she remained in the family home at Les Geneveys-sur-Coffrane until her death.
She took part in the exhibitions of the Société des amis des arts at the Musée des beaux-arts de La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1904, 1906, 1908, 1911, 1913, 1917, and 1921, and was also represented at the Neuchâtel exhibition in 1905. Other public events also mention her, notably the Exposition nationale suisse des beaux-arts (1908), presentations in Bern (1914), the exhibition Les Arts du feu at the Palais Eynard in Geneva (1916), and the exhibition of the Union féminine des Arts décoratifs at the Galerie Léopold Robert, Neuchâtel (1921). In commercial records, an advertisement notes the sale of watercolours by the artist in 1922 at the Foetisch shop in Neuchâtel.
The “Plat aux chardons” no.
Works attributed to Sophie L'Eplattenier are reported at the Musée de l'Ariana (Geneva), the Musée des beaux-arts de La Chaux-de-Fonds, and the McClung Museum of the University of Tennessee. These collection references appear in the consulted catalogue entries and are presented here in the same terms, without prejudice to the archival verifications that would be desirable for each object.
