Louis Soutter

He left for the United States at the beginning of 1897. Originally he had planned to open an interior architecture studio in New York, but health problems proved to be an obstacle. He spent the next three months in Chicago, happily planning his next move. He went on to Colorado Springs, where he married Madge in July 1897. For a time, they lived with her parents, then found an apartment at a residential hotel.[1]

He opened a studio and, by 1898, was head of the Fine Arts Department at Colorado College.[2] He would often take his students into the countryside to paint. The next few years passed uneventfully; then, in 1903, Madge sued for divorce; charging physical and mental cruelty, which may have simply been made up, due to the strict divorce laws at the time. She did not ask for support of any kind. He did not contest her action, resigned from the College and, according to The Gazette-Telegraph, had left for Paris with no intention of returning. He was succeeded at the College by Van Briggle, who had by then established his pottery manufactory.[3] Madge remarried in 1907.

He did spend several months in Paris, then went to Morges, where his physical and mental health declined. He would often complain about Madge to his friends and relatives, claiming that she was authoritarian and exploitative.[4] In 1906, a friend of one of his uncles, who was head of the Sonnenfels Clinic in Spiez, invited him there to work as the gardener.

Forest

The Lilies and the Foolish Virgins

Masks

By 1907, he was feeling sufficiently improved to embark on a musical career. He obtained a position in the first violin section of the Orchestre du Théâtre de Genève (now the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande), but left after an "artistic disagreement". The following year, he was engaged by the Orchestre Symphonique de Lausanne and, in 1915, by the Orchestre de Genève. Problems persisted, however, and by 1918 he was playing in small ensembles at tea rooms and tourist resorts. During this time, he gained a reputation for "madness" and was always melancholy. He was in several groups throughout Switzerland until 1922, when he went back to Morges to stay.[5] There, he lived off his brother, who had to support the habit for wearing fancy clothes he had picked up in America, and his drinking. Eventually, he was placed under guardianship and sent to a nursing home in Gros-de-Vaud.

In 1923, at the age of fifty-two, he was placed in what would now be called a hospice, for elderly men, in Ballaigues.[6] He was not confined there, and often went for long walks in the countryside or to visit his relatives. Despite this freedom, he was unhappy there and generally disliked. He remained there until his death.[7]

During the early part of his stay there, he made sketches with pen and pencil in small school notebooks and practiced music in the chapel; sometimes giving lessons. His cousin, Le Corbusier, who had discovered him there in 1927, was impressed with what he saw and helped him acquire better materials for his artwork. By 1937, his hands were crippled with osteoarthritis and he began to use his fingers; dipping them directly into the ink or paint. Meanwhile, Le Corbusier was gathering his works. Through his efforts, exhibitions were held in Hartford (1936), Lausanne (1937) and New York (1939). Soutter's new-found approach, applying ink directly to paper with his fingers, eventually led Le Corbusier to shun the artist, being 'the antithesis to Le Corbusier's architectural emphasis on order.'[8]

Soutter died in Ballaigues in 1942, weakened by his repeated refusal to eat, at the age of seventy-one, and was buried by the hospice. His friends and family only learned of his death by reading the obituary in the newspaper.

Hermann Hesse wrote a poem about him. In 2008, a square was named after him in his hometown.