Niklaus Bütler (28 October 1786, Auw – 14 November 1864,

Lucerne Lucerne ( ) or Luzern ()Other languages: ; ; ; . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital of the canton of Lucerne and part of the Lucerne (district), di ...

) was a Swiss painter; primarily of portraits.

Life and work

He received his artistic training in Zürich, with Johann Heinrich Wüest and Johann Kaspar Huber (1752-1827). Upon returning to his hometown, he married Anna Maria Trutmann, from an impoverished family. They relocated to

Küssnacht Küssnacht am Rigi (official name since 2004: Küssnacht) is a village and a district and a municipality in the canton of Schwyz in Switzerland. The municipality consists of the three villages Küssnacht, Immensee, and Merlischachen, the hamlet ...

in 1820 and had several children, including Anton and

Joseph Joseph is a common male name, derived from the Hebrew (). "Joseph" is used, along with " Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the modern-day Nordic count ...

, who also became artists. In the hopes of procuring a better livelihood, they moved to Lucerne in 1839. Their situation improved, but they remained poor. He is mainly remembered for portraits, although he also produced church paintings, historical scenes, and theatrical sets. His best known work is a monumental canvas depicting the death of

Albrecht Gessler Albrecht Gessler, also known as Hermann, was a legendary 14th-century House of Habsburg, Habsburg bailiff () at Altdorf, Uri, Altdorf, whose brutal rule led to the William Tell rebellion and the eventual independence of the Old Swiss Confederacy. ...

, which was created in 1834 for a chapel in Küssnacht, where

William Tell William Tell (, ; ; ; ) is a legendary folk hero of Switzerland. He is known for shooting an apple off his son's head. According to the legend, Tell was an expert mountain climber and marksman with a crossbow who assassinated Albrecht Gessler, ...

was said to have shot Gessler with a

crossbow A crossbow is a ranged weapon using an Elasticity (physics), elastic launching device consisting of a Bow and arrow, bow-like assembly called a ''prod'', mounted horizontally on a main frame called a ''tiller'', which is hand-held in a similar f ...

Sources

* "Bütler (Büttler), Nikolaus", In: ''Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart'', Vol. 5: Brewer–Carlingen, E. A. Seemann, Leipzig, 1911
Online
* Otto Mittler and Georg Boner (Eds.), ''Biographisches Lexikon des Aargaus 1803–1957.'' Sauerländer, Aarau 1958

External links

@ Kunstbreite 19th-century Swiss painters Swiss male painters 1786 births 1854 deaths 19th-century Swiss male artists {{Switzerland-painter-stub