Cuno Amiet. Cuno Amiet was a Swiss painter, illustrator, graphic artist and sculptor.
As the first Swiss painter to give precedence to colour in composition, he was a pioneer of modern art in Switzerland. Amiet was born in Solothurn, and was the son of the chancellor of the canton of Solothurn, Josef Ignaz Amiet.
He attended the Kantonsschule Solothurn, where he graduated with the Matura in 1883. After studies with the painter Frank Buchser, he attended the Academy of Fine Arts Munich in 1886-88, where he befriended Giovanni Giacometti.
In 1888-92, Giacometti and Amiet continued their studies in Paris, where Amiet studied at the Académie Julian under Adolphe-William Bouguereau, Tony Robert-Fleury and Gabriel Ferrier. Dissatisfied with academic art, Amiet joined the Pont-Aven School in 1892, where he learned from Émile Bernard, Paul Sérusier, Roderic O'Conor and Armand Séguin.
In Pont-Aven, he came to prefer the use of pure colour to tonal painting. In 1893, Amiet's lack of funds forced him to return to Switzerland, where he set up a studio in Hellsau. A first exposition at the Kunsthalle Basel in 1894 was generally ill-received. In the 1890s, Amiet continued to collaborate with Giacometti and had only modest commercial success, until he was commissioned in 1898 to paint a portrait of Ferdinand Hodler, whose work would later exert a great influence on Amiet. His fortunes improved greatly in