GEIGER, ERNST SAMUEL View of Lake Biel with St. Peter's Island. Oil on canvas, sig. u. dat. 1913 u.l., 46x61 cm Label on verso: Zürcher Kunstgesellschaft. Born in Aargau, Ernst Samuel Geiger first studied medicine in Basel from 1896/97, later forestry at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, where he received his doctorate in 1900. In his dissertation he dealt with the forest botany of Bergell, where he also encountered Giovanni Segantini's art. Under this impression, Geiger himself found his way to painting. However, he did not pursue this new passion directly, but first continued his career as an educator at various schools in Switzerland and abroad. At the same time, he trained as a self-taught painter and graphic artist and in 1904 became involved as a founding member of the Aargau section of the GSMBA. He received decisive artistic stimuli on study trips to Munich, Paris and Northern Italy. Geiger's works quickly found favor and enabled him to live exclusively from artistic activity from 1906. His oeuvre, which consists primarily of landscapes in bright colors and strong brushstrokes, is entirely in the tradition of Swiss modernism around Ferdinand Hodler, Giovanni Giacometti and Cuno Amiet. After marrying Maria Bockhoff in 1908, the couple lived first in Bern and three years later in Twann on Lake Biel. In 1918 they moved again to the Hof estate in Ligerz, where Geiger lived until his death. The early loss of his wife, who died during the birth of their second child, not only left its mark on the painter himself, but also on his further artistic activity. Throughout his life, he was in close contact with Max Bill, his nephew who had an affinity for art and later became an important Zurich artist and architect. http://www.dobiaschofsky.com/d106--10117.html