Karl Stauffer-Bern

Karl Stauffer, known as Karl Stauffer-Bern (2 September 1857, Trubschachen – 24 January 1891, Florence) was a Swiss painter, etcher and sculptor. In the late 1880s, Stauffer-Bern had a romantic affair with Lydia Welti-Escher, but her husband used his political influence to separate them and to place Welti-Escher in an insane asylum. A despondent Stauffer-Bern reacted with a suicide attempt which left him permanently injured. In January 1891, he committed suicide with an overdose of chloral hydrate. Later, he worked in Berlin as a portrait painter, where he had many notable people as subjects. Then, he studied etching and engraving with Peter Halm. He was also a teacher at the Berlin School for Women Artists, where his students included Käthe Kollwitz, Hedwig Weiß and Clara Siewert.

In 1888, under the sponsorship of his patrons, the Welti family, he went to Rome to study sculpture. While there, he began an affair with Lydia Welti-Escher, although Strauss later denied that there were any direct biographical references.

Selected portraits