Adolf STÄBLI (* 1842, † 1901)

(Johann Adolf Stäbli, Johann Adolf Staebli)

The storm painter Adolf Stäbli, nicknamed ‘Der Unwetterer’ (The Stormy One), is a Swiss painter who loved to paint thunderstorms, storms, floods and dark cloudscapes.

Even as a child, stormy weather made Adolf Stäbli feel physically and mentally at ease. Stäbli succeeded in making stormy weather palpable to the viewer. It is not without reason that A. Stäbli himself said: ‘My painting is experience, not invention.’

Together with Otto Frölicher (1840–1890), Adolf Stäbli is one of the most important representatives of German-Swiss Paysage intime with his atmospheric landscapes. While the paintings of the French-speaking representatives of the Paysage intime – such as Barthélemy Menn – appear inconspicuous and without effect, the paintings of the German-speaking representatives of the Paysage intime are characterised by sombre depictions.

Adolf Stäbli is also associated with Swiss late Romanticism.

Oil on canvas depicting clouds over a hilly landscape with a house by Adolf Stäbli
Oil on canvas depicting clouds over a hilly landscape with a house by Adolf Stäbli
 
 

1842
born in Winterthur, Switzerland

1958
Adolf Stäbli leaves grammar school and begins training with his father

1859 bis 1861
apprenticeship with Rudolf Koller in Zurich.

1862
Stäbli attends the Karlsruhe Academy of Arts under Johann Wilhelm Schirmer

until 1867
stops in Dresden, Milan and Paris

1867
Adolf Stäbli visits the World Exhibition in Paris and meets the French landscape painters, whom he then also visits in Barbizon

1869
settles in Munich, where he befriends Arnold Böcklin and Otto Frölicher

1882
trip to Italy

from 1894
chloroform poisoning and ongoing health problems

1901
died in Munich, Germany