Souvenir suisse: die Graphiksammlung der Stiftung Familie Fehlmann

Abstract

Memories are what endure in the minds of travelers, today as in the past. Be it photos, postcards or vistas of the places visited or a good old sketchbook, they are all helpful for jogging the memory. When, back in the 18th century, Switzerland became a travel destination and was regarded as the "temple of nature" ... the foundations were laid for tourism to blossom. This was accompanied by a new kind of image production, one that precisely served to preserve travel memories: in the 1760s, Winterthur-based landscape painter, illustrator and engraver Johann Ludwig Aberli invented the hand-colored outline etching, an intelligently chosen mixture of print and watercolor. The process became known as the "Aberli Style" and was subsequently emulated by artists such as Heinrich Rieter and Gabriel Lory, who advanced the technique. Their captivating prints were expensive souvenirs that were distributed widely as they fostered the image of the "European Arcadia." Stiftung Familie Fehlmann in Winterthur ... owns a fascinating collection of these prints ... now going on public display for the first time to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of the man who launched the foundation. Together with the wealth of paintings and drawings in the Kunst Museum Winterthur collection, the exhibition will paint a multi-faceted picture of Switzerland that emphatically shaped how the country was perceived from the outside and contributed strongly to the evolution of the Swiss identity that is taken as the norm today. --Museum website.