Andreas Walser

1908–1930

Andreas Walser (Swiss, 1908-1930) exhibited considerable artistic talent from very early on. In 1928 he established first contact to painter Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, whom he befriended. Walser painted his first larger pictures that same year. In the fall of 1928 he moved to Paris, financially supported by his parents. In 1929 he painted portraits of artists such as Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau, Giorgio de Chirico, and of the poet Colette, among others. In the same year he also engaged with avant-garde photography, gained his first commercial success and exhibited in several art galleries in Paris. In 1930 Andreas Walser died, only 22 years old, presumably from an overdose of drugs. Almost all of Walser’s written and painted oeuvre was created during his brief time in Paris. Much of his work was lost, but in the early 1980s almost 200 works as well as manuscripts, letters and other documents were found in an attic in Paris.