Jean Hirtzel

1957 - 1962

Jean Hirtzel, born in Neuchatel (Switzerland) in 1936, studies drawing and painting in his native city (Academy of Maximilien de Meuron) and pursues his training in Florence (Fine Arts Academy) as well as in Paris (Academy Julian, Grande Chaumière and Atelier Del Debbio).

Considering that only rigorous experience in the visual artist’s trade will allow him to acquire the means for his freedom of expression, he dedicates his student years to rigorous composition studies (still lifes, landscape, and the human figure).

The interpretive copying of the artworks of Masters in Florence and Paris museums allows him to acquire, in addition to the mastery of techniques, an encyclopaedic knowledge of art history ; this passion is as much for the archaic period as the research of the avant-garde.