Anton Bütler

Anton Bütler (Auw, 1819 – Lucerne, 1874) was a Swiss painter of landscapes, historical scenes and church subjects. He matters as an example of a mid-nineteenth-century artist from central Switzerland who combined training with his father, study in Munich, Düsseldorf and Rome, and a long career based in his home city.

The son of the artist Niklaus Bütler, he spent most of his childhood in Küssnacht, where the family had settled in 1820, and received his first lessons from his father. At around sixteen he entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, where he made copies after the Dutch masters and worked as an assistant to Peter von Cornelius. In 1840 he settled in Lucerne, where his family had moved the previous year, and opened his own studio.

In 1844 he was commissioned to decorate the Grand Council Chamber, and he also painted several altarpieces. He left Lucerne in 1848 for further study, but accounts differ on where he went: some say back to Munich, others to the Düsseldorf Academy under Friedrich Wilhelm von Schadow. He was in Rome from 1855 to 1857 and lived in Düsseldorf from 1865 to 1868 with his brother Joseph, also a painter. He nonetheless returned to Lucerne and stayed there for the rest of his life.

His later work included historical and religious scenes as well as landscapes. He promoted a drawing school for craftsmen and took part in conservation projects at several churches and at a chapel in Küssnacht dedicated to William Tell, which his father had helped decorate in 1834.