Digital Guide Albert Anker | Kunstmuseum Bern

Introduction

Albert Anker (1831–1910) is regarded as one of Switzerland’s most famous artists, renowned for his meticulously detailed, idealized depictions of traditional rural communities. In addition to his work as an artist, he held official posts at municipal, canton, and also federal level. As a resident of the farming community of Ins, he was active, well into old age, in its school politics and such educational matters as the founding of its high school in 1896, for which he had co-responsibility as secretary of the Ins school committee.

Albert Anker was the painter of the most beautiful children’s portraits to emerge from European Realism during the 19th century. His depictions, in particular, of girls reading and writing possess an impressive and serene power. It is in such works that the artist celebrates children’s ability to be absorbed by tasks, evoking our own memories of the exhilarating experience of being immersed in a story and creating an imaginary world from it. Reading inspires the imagination, providing access to knowledge and promoting the ability to think independently. As a theologically trained humanist, Anker sought broad educational horizons not only for himself and his children, but for all of Switzerland’s citizens. Yet it was not until 1874 that the right to a school education for both boys and girls became enshrined in the federal constitution.

If anything symbolizes the political, economic, and social progress of a society, it is the quality of women’s education. The more educated women are in a society, the better the economic status of its families and the better its children’s educational opportunities. Today, this can be observed worldwide, and in 19th century Switzerland it was not any different. It is under such a premise that our exhibition is presenting depictions of reading and writing girls and young women. The display investigates how Anker’s commitment to women’s education adds a new facet to perceptions of his oeuvre.

In addition to works from our own collection, we are also exhibiting selected loans from private and public collections as well as from Centre Albert Anker in Ins.

Albert Anker – Draftsman, Politician and Education Promoter

Albert Anker as Draftsman

Although Albert Anker was celebrated as a painter during his life, it is much less known that he was also one of the most gifted Swiss draftsmen of his time. His unique pencil, charcoal, and pen and ink drawings can be regarded as among the best of his era in terms of both execution and composition. His preparatory works on paper were the point of departure for all his paintings. The earliest surviving drawings date from 1843, while the final ones were done in 1910, the year of his death. His oeuvre, created over a sixty-year period, includes several thousand works on paper either in the form of individual sheets or in sketchbooks. Due to such an extensive number of drawings and because Anker did not sign all of them, there are also many forgeries in circulation. The body of drawings includes rapid sketches and meticulously executed studies, individual details and overall compositions, but also completely independent works. It was through drawing that Albert Anker was able to formulate and develop his artistic intentions, expressing not only his own emotions but also psychological insights into his subjects. His repertoire ranged from delicate silver-gray pencil drawings to intensely black, heavily worked charcoal drawings.

Albert Anker as Politician

In the fall of 1870, Albert Anker was elected a member of the Grand Council of the Canton of Bern, where he remained for four years. As chairman of the preliminary advisory committee he recommended that the council approve the decree enabling the construction of Kunstmuseum Bern. Although he continued to retain strong opinions privately concerning particular political events, he did not seek re-election after 1874. Instead, he worked in Ins as secretary to the school committee (1893–99) and as a member of the parish council. Albert Anker remained active in school politics well into old age and was therefore familiar with all the current educational issues and their particular details. As secretary to the Ins school committee he was, at the ripe old age of 71, involved in the founding of the high school in 1896. This new type of school offered more gifted children, even in rural areas, a more challenging alternative to primary school after the sixth year of school.

As a representative of the middle class, Anker welcomed the development of a society based on the division of labor that supported women working, although at the same time he was annoyed by the system rigorously recording pupils’ absences, which meant girls could no longer model for him because they were not allowed to miss school. Nevertheless he took an interest in women’s rights, noting in 1898 the circumstances under which women in Norway had received the right to vote. In 1889, Anker was finally elected to the federal art commission by the federal council. From 1891 he was also a member of the federal commission of the Gottfried Keller foundation.

Albert Anker and Education

Schools and education were among Albert Anker’s most important subjects and included children reading and writing as well as on the way to school or doing their homework, which Anker painted throughout his career, creating a series of imagery that, in its entirety, could be regarded as a psychological study of school activities. Anker often depicted girls carrying school paraphernalia under their arms, blackboards with traces of writing clearly visible. Also frequently bearing writing materials and well-used notebooks they make their way to school full of trust and expectations. The children reading and writing are always captured in their individuality, never seemingly aware of being observed. They are completely and naturally immersed in their reading, writing, and arithmetical activities. At the time, pupils in Ins only attended school all day during the winter, while in summer lessons took place for just half a day. Great emphasis was placed on handicraft lessons for girls. Four hours per week during the summer and six in winter were reserved for such activities, during all the nine years of compulsory school education which was introduced to the Swiss constitution in 1874. Any attempts to regulate the school system at a national level were nevertheless rejected in favor of federal, local solutions. Anker was secretary of the Ins school committee for many years and was therefore familiar with the education system. Numerous letters reveal that he cared deeply about school issues and problems that his children and grandchildren encountered and was always available to help and advise them. For Anker, words as transmitters of knowledge, laws, and beliefs provided the basis of a functioning society.

Biography

Albert Anker, Self-portrait, 1901, Oil on canvas, 48,2 x 36,2 cm, Kunstmuseum Bern, Donation by the artist’s widow, Photo: © Kunstmuseum Bern

1831
Born on 1 April in Ins, the second of three children of the vet Samuel Anker and Marianne Elisabeth Gatschet. Attends schools in Neuchâtel.

1845–48
Takes private drawing lessons with Louis Wallinger (1819–1886). 1847 death of his brother Rudolf and his mother.

1849–51
Grammar school in Bern. University entry qualification. Begins to study Theology at Bern University. First trip to Paris in September 1851.

1852–54
June 1852 death of his sister Luise. Continues studying Theology at the University of Halle in Germany. In the autumn of 1854 he moves to Paris, where he becomes a pupil of the Waadtland classicist Charles Gleyre (1806– 1874).

1855–60
Attends the Ecole Impériale et Spéciale des Beaux-Arts.

From 1856
Takes part in rotating art exhibitions of the Swiss Art Association.

1859–85
Takes part in the Paris Salon.

1860
Death of his father. From now on Anker regularly spends the summer in Ins and winter in Paris.

1861
First trip to Italy, with his friend François Ehrmann.

1864
Marries Anna Ruefli (1835–1917) from Biel. They have six children: 1865 Louise / 1867 Rudolf (d. 1869) / 1870 Emil (d. 1871) / 1872 Marie / 1874 Moritz / 1877 Cécile.

1866
Anker wins a Gold Medal at the Paris Salon.

1870–74
Member of the Great Council of the Canton of Bern, advocates for the construction of Bern Art Museum.

1878
Appointed Knight of the Legion of Honour.

1889
Is elected to the Federal Art Commission along with Frank Buchser, Arnold Böcklin, François Bocion and others.

1890
Abandons his residence Paris. Begins work on the illustrations for the Gotthelf edition, repeated trips to Emmental.

1891–1901
Member of the Federal Commission of the Gottfried Keller Foundation.

1900
Honorary doctorate at Bern University.

1901
Suffers a stroke in late September. Impairment of his right hand. Largely abandons oil painting.

1910
Anker dies on 16 July in Ins.

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