Albert Anker

Albert Anker – Aborted theology studies; painting tuition in Paris

Albert Anker was born on 1 April 1831 in Ins in the Swiss canton of Bern. The son of the veterinary doctor Samuel Anker, he was interested in drawing from an early age and received tuition from Louis Wallinger at the age of 14. Around this time, he lost his elder brother Friedrich Rudolf and his mother Elisabeth Anker, and his sister Louise also died five years later. Perhaps as a result of this painful loss, the artistically gifted Albert Anker chose to study theology in Bern. However, the call of art remained, and after seeing the works of Nicolas Poussin and Eustache Le Sueur in Paris, he decided to give up theology in favour of an artistic career. The chalk drawing Old Man Smoking a Pipe was his first contribution to an exhibition of the Swiss art association in Bern. With permission from his father, he eventually went to Paris to study under the classical Swiss painter Charles Gleyre. 

Realistic pictures for a middle-class audience

Albert Anker also attended the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris for many years and took part in various art exhibitions with some success. Following his studies, he developed a busy travel itinery which he maintained until his 60th birthday, spending the winter in Paris and the summer in the Bernese Seeland, settling year-round in his Swiss homeland only in the last years of his life. In 1864, Albert Anker married a friend of his deceased sister, Anna Rüfli, with whom he had six children, and initially worked as a Faience painter for the Alsatian manufacturer Théodore Deck. His pictures satisfied the taste of a broad audience from the beginning, and accordingly had no trouble selling his art. The wealthy Swiss bourgeoisie was happy to pay good money for the lively and distinctive depictions of Swiss life and in particular of children. Anker quickly became the most popular Swiss painter of his time and an important public figure. 

An engaged painter for the people

Albert Anker was people-oriented and took a lively interest in the social life around him, as his pictures reflect. Alongside his artistic work, he felt obligated to his environment morally and politically and involved himself in many aspects to improve conditions and to redress grievances, especially in the education system. He was committed to the idea that children of all classes should receive a proper education and was aligned with the new teachings of the Swiss pedagogues Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. A serious stroke in the last decade of his life hindered the use of his right hand and he therefore confined himself to painting small watercolours which he could do comfortably sitting down with the picture resting on his knees.
Albert Anker died in Ins on 16 July 1910. That same year, he was honoured with a comprehensive memorial exhibition – it was Albert Anker’s first solo exhibition.