By women – female artists from Zurich, past and present

From 5 September 2025, the exhibition ‘In Frauenhand | In Her Hand’ at the Zentralbibliothek Zürich will focus on the work of female artists from the 17th to the 21st century. Among them are numerous women from Zurich who have taken their artistic lives into their own hands in very different ways.

Female artists at the Zentralbibliothek
Antoinette Lisette Fäsi – papercutter as visual chronicler
Elisabeth Pfenninger – ‘the best-known miniature painter of her time’
Clementine Stockar-Escher – painting as a hobby?
Gertrud Escher – bookplates, views, portraits
Maja Zürcher – abstraction and jazz
Suggested reading

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Female artists at the Zentralbibliothek
Antoinette Lisette Fäsi – papercutter as visual chronicler
Elisabeth Pfenninger – ‘the best-known miniature painter of her time’
Clementine Stockar-Escher – painting as a hobby?
Gertrud Escher – bookplates, views, portraits
Maja Zürcher – abstraction and jazz
Suggested reading

Female artists at the Zentralbibliothek

Some Zurich artists such as Anna Waser and Warja Lavater were very successful during their lifetime and remained well-known after their deaths – many of their works can be found in the Collection of Prints and Drawings. Others, like Carolina Port, worked in niche artistic fields, such as scientific illustration – Port provided numerous illustrations for a Botanical Atlas – but were later forgotten. For many years now, we have been studying the work of both well-known and forgotten artists in the Collection of Prints and Drawings at the ZB Zürich. We present artistic works from the historical collection and supplement these with gifts and bequests.

A broad spectrum of work is thus presented in this exhibition and the stories of well-known and lesser-known artists is told. Below, we present five female Zurich artists, whose selected works will soon be on display in the Schatzkammer of the Zentralbibliothek and in an online exhibition.

Antoinette Lisette Fäsi – papercutter as visual chronicler

Antoinette Lisette Fäsi (1730–1808) made several papercut works when she was over the age of 60. In the ZB, she is credited with two portraits by Johann Caspar Lavater and two depictions of cannon battles. The unsuccessful bombardment of Zurich by Helvetic troops in the summer of 1802 is portrayed under delicate foliage.

In a presumed portrait by Fäsi from the Johann Caspar Lavater Collection, we see Fäsi cutting out a portrait of Lavater, which she literally holds ‘in her hand’. We can only guess at how she came to start papercutting. Her husband Heinrich Fäsi and Zurich pastor Johann Caspar Lavater both belonged to the Saffron Guild; Fäsi probably also moved in the same circles as Lavater. As a physiognomist, he greatly contributed to the spread of silhouetting and papercutting around 1800.

The themes of the silhouettes range from portraits, pastoral idylls and astute observations of everyday life to the war events of her time. The papercuts attributed to Fäsi are enchanting due to their compositional and narrative density and their intricate cutting technique.

A woman cutting out a silhouette of Johann Caspar Lavater. It is a presumed portrait of Antoinette Lisette Fäsi from around 1800. (Image: Johann Caspar Lavater Collection, Zurich)

Antoinette Lisette Fäsi (attributed), Lavater at his desk, between 1780 and 1790. (Image: ZB Zürich)

Antoinette Lisette Fäsi (attributed), Johann Caspar Lavater, c. 1800. (Image: ZB Zürich)

Antoinette Lisette Fäsi (attributed), ‘Bombardement ob dem Lindenhof in Zürich. Geschehen den 13 Herbstmonat, Ao 1802’. (Image: ZB Zürich)

Antoinette Lisette Fäsi (attributed), ‘Bombardment von dem Schlössli ob Fluntern gegen die Stadt Zürich, after 1802’. (Image: ZB Zürich)

Elisabeth Pfenninger – ‘the best-known miniature painter of her time’

Elisabeth Pfenninger (1772–1837/1847) was born into a privileged position as part of an influential Zurich dynasty. Her portraits were frequently the templates for prints by established artists. Her drawing of Zurich theologian Johann Caspar Häfelin served as the basis for the printed portrait by Johann Heinrich Lips.

Pfenninger received a private education in Zurich, Geneva and, from 1807, in Paris, where she moved in artistic circles, as did the well-known Elisabeth Vigée-Le Brun. Pfenninger, ‘the best-known miniature painter of her time’ according to Kruse, was revered in particular for her exquisite, highly sought-after watercolours.

Her skill is evident both in the miniature copy of ‘La Pudeur’ , based on a work by Claude-Marie Dubufe, and in her self-portraits – one in mourning dress and one in a pastoral genre painting in the Zurich countryside. As late as 1908, the works of Elisabeth Pfenninger were ‘at any rate among the best that German-speaking Switzerland has to offer in the rarely cultivated area of miniature painting,’ according to the Lexicon of Swiss Artists of that time.

A miniature portrait of Johann Caspar Häfelin, painted in around 1803 by Elisabeth Pfenninger. (Image: ZB Zürich)

The portrait of Johann Caspar Häfelin as a print, engraved by Heinrich Lips based on the miniature portrait by Elisabeth Pfenninger, 1803. (Image: ZB Zürich)

‘La Pudeur’, a miniature copy by Elisabeth Pfenninger based on the piece by Claude-Marie Dubufe, 1827. (Image: ZB Zürich)

Self-portrait by Elisabeth Pfenninger, 1816. (Image: Kunsthaus Zurich)

Portrait by Elisabeth Pfenninger, around 1800. (Image: ZB Zürich)

Clementine Stockar-Escher – painting as a hobby?

The family of Clementine Stockar-Escher (1816–1886) belonged to Zurich’s Hautevolee, or upper echelons. Her financial situation made it possible for Stockar-Escher to practise art. She took artistic inspiration from Franz Xaver Winterhalter, a renowned painter who portrayed the great figures of the European aristocracy.

As the sister of railway pioneer Alfred Escher, however, Clementine Stockar-Escher was subject to tight social boundaries. It was unthinkable for her to sell her watercolours for money. Since her works did not serve to earn a living in the sense of a profession, they were classified as dilettantism. This would have been a disparaging connotation in today’s understanding, and would have been stoutly refuted by Stockar-Escher.

She confidently presented her work at rotating exhibitions at the Schweizerisches Kunstverein and at exhibitions presented by the Künstlergesellschaft Zürich, among others. Her graphic oeuvre, with over 800 works including genre scenes, portraits and still lifes, is remarkably extensive for a 19th-century artist.

Self-portrait of Clementine Stockar-Escher, around 1840. (Image: ZB Zürich)

Clementine Stockar-Escher as portrait painter, anonymous photograph, 1859. (Image: ZB Zürich)

Lesen zur Unzeit, 1850, genre scene by Clementine Stockar-Escher. (Image: ZB Zürich)

Clementine Stockar-Escher, Hedwig Jauch, 1872. (Image: ZB Zürich)

Clementine Stockar-Escher, Dahlien in verschiedenen Arten, 1873. (Image: ZB Zürich)

Gertrud Escher – bookplates, views, portraits

Social restrictions also set limits for Gertrud Escher (1875–1956). However, the progressive attitude of her father, who was a professor at ETH Zurich, paved the way for her to pursue a professional education as an artist. She studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich from 1893 to 1896. From 1898 she attended the women’s academy of the female artists’ association in Munich, where she learnt landscape painting. She also completed training in Paris. Escher was briefly engaged to Augusto Giacometti. Giacometti fell ill with tuberculosis, forcing him to break off the engagement, and Escher remained unmarried for the rest of her life.

Gertrud Escher learnt the complex technique of etching from Hermann Gattiker. As a result, she later became a member of Walze, the Association of Swiss Artists and Graphic Designers. Her numerous bookplates – for people such as concert hall director Friedrich Hegar or for the Zentralbibliothek – reflect the artist’s social involvement. Her broad artistic repertoire includes landscape paintings as well as portraits.

Bookplate for Friedrich Hegar by Gertrud Escher, 1919. (Image: ZB Zürich)

Gift bookplate for the Zentralbibliothek Zürich by Gertrud Escher, 1917. (Image: ZB Zürich)

Gertrud Escher, Blick in den Garten, probably between 1900 and 1930. (Image: ZB Zürich)

‘Zitruspflanze in einem Garten’, reverse of the garden painting by Gertrud Escher, probably between 1900 and 1930. (Image: ZB Zürich)

Gertrud Escher’s insightful portrait of her uncle Hermann Escher, the first director of the Zentralbibliothek Zurich, is a prime example of her skill. (Image: ZB Zürich)

Maja Zürcher – abstraction and jazz

Like many female Swiss artists of her generation, Maja Zürcher (1945–1997) received her initial education at the Zurich Kunstgewerbeschule. She then continued her training at art schools in London and, from 1970, in Paris. She specialised in woodcuts and used them to create colourful, abstract compositions.

Music was an important source of inspiration for her: Zürcher believed that, as with music, it was possible ‘to convey a direct message’ using abstract images. She succeeded in doing this in cover designs for vinyl records, but also in large-format homages to musicians of her time, such as jazz singer Betty Carter and jazz pianist Mal Waldron.

The artist, who presented her work in 160 exhibitions during her lifetime, was a member of the Xylon woodcut association and the Society of Swiss Female Painters, Sculptors and Artistic Craftsmen. Zürcher became politically active by facilitating woodcut courses in Mozambique as ‘counter-movement’ to missionary work, which she viewed critically.

An abstract drawing by Maja Zürcher in orange, grey and white, possibly created in Paris in 1970/1971. (Image: ZB Zürich)

The ‘Ballad III’ woodcut by Maja Zürcher from 1993. (Image: ZB Zürich)

Maja Zürcher, artist’s print of the ‘Weggehen’ woodcut, 1985. (Image: ZB Zürich)

Maja Zürcher dedicated this painting to jazz singer Betty Carter in 1986. (Image: ZB Zürich)

She dedicated another from the same year to jazz pianist Mal Waldron. (Image: ZB Zürich)