The work of Caroline Bachmann (*1963) spans the major genres of painting: portrait, still life, History painting, and above all landscape. These traditional tropes allow her to let the painting decide for itself what it wants to become, without any idea or statement necessary to elucidate.
Most of her landscapes—as is the case with JRP|Editions’ Clair de Lune edition (2025)—are inspired by the region she lives in, one of the most beautiful areas overlooking Lake Geneva. Unlike the iconic Swiss painter Ferdinand Hodler (1853–1918) who worked in the same premises, she does not paint “en plain air”: instead, Bachmann starts in the studio with a series of very rapid sketches, creating her pieces by invention and from memory, thus allowing her to paint with great freedom of interpretation.
This dreamy atmosphere is enhanced by the painted frames that are an essential part of her compositions. As she shifts the landscape format from horizontal to vertical, in contradiction to the horizontal nature of a large body of water like Geneva Lake, these border designs play the role of a gate through which we enter into a world of memory, nature, and meditation.
