(1906 - Geneva - 1999 )
Robert Hainard is one of the best loved 20th century artists in Switzerland, especially among the active conservationist and environmental movement in this country.
The son of two artists, he began to draw animals at an early age. Inspired by Japanese prints, he experimented with woodblock print making, and developed a unique technique which he continued to use throughout this career. His devotion to the preservation of the animals he depicted and their habitats made him a forerunner of the ecology movement. In 1969, the University of Geneva presented him with an honorary doctoral degree in science.
Hainard once explained to an interviewer "When I see an animal, I become that animal. I participate in its movements with it, and it is in the memory of my own muscles, even more than my visual memory, that I can capture that movement."*
See also: Fondation Robert Hainard
*Extraits de «Entretien sur la gravure» Ed Hesse
