Wilhelm Gimmi

WILHELM GIMMI (Zurich, 1894–Chexbres, 1981).
“Circus Scene.”
Facsimile on paper. Standard print run of 403 copies.
Published in L’Âme du Cirque: Moralité couronnée par l’Académie Française.
Accompanied by a photocopy verifying the print run.
Framed with museum-quality glass.
Signed on the plate.
Measurements: 27 x 35 cm; 42 x 51 cm (frame).
Wilhelm Gimmi was a Swiss painter whose artistic career initially unfolded in Paris, where he resided for the first thirty-two years of his career. Trained at the prestigious Académie Julian, he gained recognition as a painter of classical nudes and was an active participant in the major artistic circles of the French capital. In 1919, he exhibited at the Salon d’Automne alongside prominent modernist artists such as Pierre Bonnard, Henri Matisse, and Albert Marquet.
In 1940, he returned to Switzerland and settled in Chexbres, a town on Lake Geneva. This change of scenery had a significant influence on his work: he lightened his color palette and focused his output on landscapes and everyday scenes from the vineyards of the Lavaux region.
Wilhelm Gimmi’s significance within 20th-century Swiss art is reflected in his inclusion in the Benezit Dictionary of Artists and the Grove Dictionary of Art. A fundamental part of his legacy is preserved at the Musée Jenisch, home to the Wilhelm Gimmi Foundation and a major collection of his works.