Martha Stettler: a modern female artist from another time

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Martha Stettler 'Nature morte, der Teetisch', 1908–1916 Oil on canvas, 50 x 65 cm Private collection Gockhausen SIK-ISEA (Philipp Hitz)

Martha Stettler 'Spielende Kinder im Jardin du Luxembourg', 1912 Oil on canvas , 65 x 81 cm Private collection Privatbesitz / Geri Krischker

Martha Stettler 'Sur la terrasse de Versailles', 1911 Oil on canvas, 64 x 80 cm Private collection Privatbesitz

Martha Stettler 'Le parc', 1910 Oil on canvas, 81 x 116,3 cm Bern Museum of Fine Art Kunstmuseum Bern

Martha Stettler 'Stillleben mit Katze', between 1907 and 1916, Oil on Canvas, 65 x 80,5 cm Bern Museum of Fine Art Prolith AG / Kunstmuseum Bern

Martha Stettler 'Intimité', 1912 Oil on canvas, 112 x 145 cm Martha Stettler Estate, Steffisburg Nachlass Martha Stettler, Steffisburg

Alice Dannenberg and Martha Stettler at the Académie Julian, 1894. Bern Museum of Fine Art. Kunstmuseum Bern

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As a woman working as an artist in the late 19^th century, it was never going to be easy for Martha Stettler. Despite her talent and support from her family, the Swiss artist struggled to find a place in the art history books. Now, her work is being celebrated in a retrospective where it all began: the Bern Museum of Fine Arts.

Martha Stettler was born into a bourgeois family in Bern, on September 25, 1870. Her father, Eugen Stettler – the architect of the Bern museum – recognised and supported his daughter’s artistic talent. 

Having sketched the complete collection of plaster sculptures in the museum her father had helped to build, her devotion to drawing paved the way to an education at Bern’s College of Art in 1886 and later on, to Paris aged 23 in 1893. She made Paris her home and it was here that she came to be mentored by the French painter Lucien Simon, who introduced Martha to impressionist painting.

Together with her partner Alice Dannenberg, she founded the ‘Académie de la Grande Chaumière’ in Paris in 1904, where she later became its head, much to the disdain of Swiss artist Ferdinand Hodler, who said, “We do not want women here!”.External link He was determined to prevent women having any access to the Swiss professional association of painters and sculptors (GSMBA).

Stettler ran the academy successfully in spite of the misogynistic attitudes she was faced with in her work. It was favoured by students because of its easy-going approach to learning, and the school’s alumni included a star-studded cast; Alberto Giacometti, Meret Oppenheim and Louise Bourgeois.

Stettler also became the very first and only woman to exhibit her art at the 12th Venice Biennale in 1920.

A retrospective of her life and work can be seen at the Bern Museum of Fine ArtsExternal link until July 29.