Edmond Bornand, Mazots à Zermatt, 1926, Oil on Cardboard, Framed

Painter born in the Swiss Valais in 1873. Died in 1953. Edmond Bornand, originally from Ste-Croix, was born in this town on February 19, 1873. He is a Ste-Crix raised in Montreux where his father was a jeweler. He first exercised successfully the profession of photographer before taking up painting. Edmond Bornand operated a photographic studio in Lausanne, Place Pépinet 5 from 1896 to 1903, then he moved his studio to no 6 on Place St-François where he remained until 1909. His specialty was landscape photography as well as landscape photography. architecture. The Historical Museum of Lausanne has an important photographic collection of Edmond Bornand. A complete artist, he contributed to “L'écho des Alpes” in 1902. He photographed the ascent of the Aiguille Javelle, 3434 m and wrote the report of the race. At that time, he was a member of the Diablerets section of the CAS. In 1920, he contributed to the production of numerous vignettes and photographs, still for “L'écho des Alpes”, organ of the Swiss Alpine Club. The CAS has a photographic collection of silver plates by Edmond Bornand. Settled in 1920 in Yverdon, he had a house built there in 1928 at rue des Moulins where he died on May 21, 1953. He had married Louisa Michaud (1881-1938), sister of Léon Michaud, a personality well known to Yverdonnois for his work as a historian. We can assume that this family relationship oriented the painter's work. Edmond Bornand, artist with multiple gifts, sensitive and meticulous man, first became known as a photographer. Established in Lausanne at the beginning of the century, he distinguished himself both in his portrait and in his mountain landscapes, because he was a good mountaineer. But after a few years, the photo did not fully satisfy his artistic ambitions. He then attended the School of Fine Arts in Belgium from 1907 to 1909, studied drawing and painting, then turned resolutely towards watercolor. Rapid progress rewards his zeal. He painted very beautiful landscapes in Belgium, in the south of France and in Corsica. The painter - mountaineer excelled in the art of watercolor and oil painting and mastered the technique of etching. The result was a work full of poetry with a lot of light. His art was to bring to life or relive a landscape, a corner of town, a street, a wild river ... But the 1914 war forced him to return to Switzerland, and it was in Yverdon that he spent the last thirty years of his life. The city and its surroundings, Thièle and the shores of the lake will be his favorite subjects; however his taste for the mountains has not left him and he will still make many stays in our Alps. Always working from nature, he tackled many subjects, from all his works an intense poetry emanates. His paintings are imbued with sincerity, delicacy and light.