Johann Ludwig Aberli
Pioneer of Swiss landscape aquatint
Johann Ludwig Aberli was a Swiss painter and etcher. He was born into a humble family. His father was a watchman. After completing his basic education, he became the student of a local artist named Heinrich Meyer. With his recommendation, in 1741, Aberli was accepted at the drawing school operated by Johann Grimm [de]. While studying there, he worked as a decorative painter. In the mid-1740s, he and Philipp Hieronymus Brinckmann took a trip through the Bernese Oberland, which stimulated his interest in painting landscapes. In 1747, he married Christina Barbara Janss, from Saanen. They had only one daughter, who died young. That same year, he succeeded his former teacher Grimm as operator of the drawing school. He often took his students on trips to lake Geneva, Lake Biel, Lake Neuchâtel, and the Oberland. He established his own workshop in the 1750s, together with a publishing company to issue his works. He also trained his employees, including the engraver, Adrian Zingg, and the vedutist, Samuel Hieronymus Grimm. In 1759, he took them to Paris, to study the Old Masters at the museums, and to show them the famous engraving workshop of Johann Georg Wille. After returning from Paris, he had a small summer house built in Köniz and began collecting art. His greatest financial success came with copper engravings, but he also made a decent profit on his watercolors. In order to reproduce them, he developed an etching method that came to be known as the "Aberlische Manier". In 1774, he travelled throughout the Jura Mountains with his colleague, Sigmund Freudenberger. He was visited by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, on his second trip to Switzerland in 1779. He died at the age of sixty-two. His business operations were continued by the artist, Heinrich Rieter [de], while the remainder of his estate was auctioned off. A street in Biel is named after him.
Relationship Network
Master student
- Adrian Zingg Student
- Samuel Hieronymus Grimm Student
- Gabriel Lory the older Student
- Marquard Wocher Student
- Peter Birmann Student
Fellow student
Friend
Parent child
- Johann Heinrich Bleuler Child
Artworks by this artist
- Bauernhaus am Wasser
- Vue prise aux environs de la Tour
- Zwei Ansichten einer stillenden Frau
- Au Pont prés du Lac de Joux
- Chute d’eau apellée Staubbach dans la Vallée Louterbrunnen
- Am Bielersee [Landschaft mit Turm]
- Berner Bauernhaus 2
- Hügelige Landschaft mit Fluß, Bäumen und Häusern 1744
- La Vallée Oberhasli
- Ansicht von Belp
- Ansicht einer Mühle im Berner Mittelland
- Ansicht einer Mühle im Berner Mittelland.
- Vûe dessinée à Mouri prés de Berne
- Bauernhaus im Seeland
- Landschaft mit Brunnen.
- Studie einer Bäuerin in Tracht 4
- Paysanne Servante à Berne 1775 - 1778
- Vue du Village et du Lac de Brientz
- à Boezingen
- Ein Mann auf einem Stuhl sitzend in Unterhaltung mit einem Jungen