Peter Baer (1936-2015) - Portret van Ernst Schweizer

Although not signed, this is a typical canvas by Peter Baer (1936-2025) with the large white areas and the riotous colors on the canvas.

From 1979 to 2004 he painted a cycle titled "Canvas as Color." Peter Baer increasingly worked with unprimed canvas during this period. Some of Baer’s paintings appear light, almost floating, due to the high proportion of white in the execution or because he applied a lot of white directly onto the pure linen or cotton.

Also belonging to this period is the work offered here: “Portrait of Ernst Schweizer” (80x100 cm), which presumably (according to the paper on the back of the canvas) was a commission by Rudyard Luderus, the performing actor in the Bouwmeester Revue, for which he paid 9,000 Swiss francs.

Baer’s thoughts on portraiture: "In my view portrait painting is the most difficult. Given an ancient tradition, the difficulty of painting a contemporary portrait is enormous. It is not enough to go simply outward. Something of the person's character must come through. If I paint from nature, I must engage with the model, expose myself to it as well. Then follows the so-called ‘correction.’ The aim is to magnify the colors associated with the model’s character. This process can take years. Painting from a photograph is probably possible, but photography at best gives only an idea of a person’s aura and character traits. Therefore it is of great importance that I interact with that person.”

The Swiss artist Peter Baer was born on November 1, 1936, in Winterthur. He lived and worked his whole life in Basel, grew up there, and maintained several artist studios. He was a trained painter, etcher, draughtsman, and sculptor. Most of his exhibitions took place in Basel and in the Basel region. His painting subjects outside the portraits are usually marked by the presence of a bull, whose male habituation runs as a leitmotif through his paintings. Often bursting with expressive force in connection with the bullfighter, whom he calls a match, an adversary, and a counterpoint to resist the animal drives of the bull.

Many art experts have engaged with Baer’s work and written on it. One was Jean-Christophe Ammann, then director of Kunsthalle Basel, who was a strong advocate of freelance artists, though various approaches shaped their careers. Ammann urged a radical approach to current trends in modern art and promoted what lay closest to hand. Baer wished to situate classical painting within art and elevate it above the shouts of modernism. Years ago, a publication about Peter Baer and his artistic work appeared from Friedrich Rheinhardt Verlag in Basel. It contains numerous contributions by various authors about him or the Swiss writer René Regenass, whom I once met on the occasion of an exhibition opening. He is one of those with whom the artist stood on good terms."