Benjamin Vautier was born in April 1827 in a family of French origins and studied art at a young age. He became the pupil of Hbert at 16 and then of Lugardon and Rodolphe Jordan in Dsseldorf but Schadow, on seeing his drawings, told him that all his artistic education was wrong.
Undeterred, Vautier continued to produce rustic scenes made a trip in 1853 in the Oberland region in Switzerland during which he produced many sketches for his paintings.
While in Geneva in 1856 he became more deeply interested in representing village scenes but returned to Dsseldorf two years later.
Working painstakingly with a minute sense of details he only produced no more than five paintings every year and the whole of his production was acquired by some dealers who were making considerable profits.
His works were often reproduced in engravings and photographs on a large scale showing that Vautier enjoyed great success.
Most of his subjects dealt with rural life in the Black Forest region as well as in Alsace while Swiss themes were produced during his debuts.
Vautier was the true exponent of German countryside life, of a world opposed to the industrial revolution.
With Ludwig Knaus (1819-1910) and Franz Delfreger, Vautier, who died two days before his birthday in April 1898, was one of the best genre painters during the 19th Century in Germany. Many of his works can now be seen in several German museums including those of Koenigsberg, Leipzig, Koln, Dsseldorf, Dresden, Hamburg, Berlin, Karlsruhe and Breslau as well as in Switzerland such as those of Basel, Zurich and Lausanne.
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