Lisa Wenger
1858–1941 · Swiss painter and children's author
Lisa Wenger, born Lisa Ruutz in Bern in 1858 and died in Carona in 1941, was a Swiss painter and writer. She trained artistically in Basel, Paris and Florence, and completed her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Düsseldorf. In 1881 she opened a porcelain painting workshop in Basel aimed at women and young ladies.
In 1890 she married Théo Wenger, owner of a steel goods factory, and the couple moved to Delémont, which at that time was still part of the canton of Bern. Only at the age of 46, after settling in nearby Courtételle, did she begin the career for which she is remembered today, that of a children's author. During the 1930s she was one of the best known and most widely read authors in Switzerland. Among her titles are The Blue Fairy Tale Book (1905) and The Old Women's Mill (1921).
From 1919 she regularly visited Carona in Ticino, where a small informal summer circle of writers and artists gathered around Hermann Hesse. Her daughter Ruth married Hesse in 1924, linking the family to the writer for years.