Arnold Brugger de Meiringen is probably one of the alpine painters more pure.
Having grown up in the mountains since he was young, they became an integral part of his life.
Born in 1888, his talent for drawing became apparent at a very young age, and he completed his apprenticeship as a lithographer in the family business founded by his father. Subsequently, Brügger learned the lithographer's trade at his parents' art institution between 1904 and 1908.
Source: askART
If Arnold mainly lets the demonic side of the mountains speak to us in his painting, this is partly due to the experiences of his youth that were deeply engraved in his mind and left an indelible memory.
He soon learned that the mountains are not only glorious and worth climbing beyond measure, but also full of corruption and danger to the wanderer who ventures into his kingdom. And it is that, the death in the mountain opened gaps in his immediate environment from the beginning, since his uncle Andreas died in an avalanche in Kranzberg, a relative fell and died in Rothorn.
In 1912, as part of his professional training, Brügger attended courses at the School of Applied Arts in Bernwhere he met Otto Morach. Then he worked on Berlin and in Neighborhood as a draftsman-lithographer and poster painter, attending drawing classes in the afternoons.
En Berlin, faced important works of the group of artists bridgeas well as Wassily Kandinsky, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cézanne, with whom he rubbed elbows to learn and give life to fascinating landscapes.
Later, Brügger took an extensive and conscious look at Cézanne's work, especially the street paintings, night cityscapes, and portraits that were created in Paris, where he stayed two or three months each year, except during the war years.
For Brugger, Paris facilitated the decisive step from being a draughtsman-lithographer to being an independent artist.
Later, with the outbreak of the Second World War, Brügger was forced to abandon his travels to Paris and finally settled down, leaving Meiringen only on shorter trips.
Although his early work was clearly influenced by Cézanne, the influence of German Expressionism, especially of August Macke, whom he visited, is unmistakable in his later works.
Thus it was that the artist created his surrounding mountainous world that served as a source of inspiration for the rest of his life.
Brügger found great interest in the interactions of wind and clouds, as well as in light and shadow, and gradually acquired his distinctive stamp, contrary to Van Gogh and Cézanne, who made the leap to other currents.
Here and there, however, the painter also looks for more delicate tones, similar to cakes.
Barely hinted at and looking across a dreamlike distance, it shows the peaks only to be desired, never to be scaled, a shore we mortals cannot reach. But it is precisely in such contrasting themes that the creative depth and versatility of the artist becomes evident.
In 1913, for financial reasons, he returned to Meiringen, where he has had his main residence ever since. Although his early work was influenced by Cézanne, Cubism and German Expressionism led him to a more independent, impasto and flat style, as well as a palette dominated by muted tonal colors after his return to paintings. native mountains.
He died in 1975, in Meiringen.