Portrait of Lydia Welti-Escher

Lydia Escher (1858-1891), daughter of the important politician and entrepreneur Alfred Escher, was married to Emil Welti, son of the Swiss Federal Council, doctor and childhood friend of Stauffer. The painting was painted in July 1886 (see inv. 571 and inv. 1285); Stauffer took it to Berlin and tried to add an oleander, among other things.
Three years after the creation of this painting, which was painted white in white, a particularly appreciated technique at the time, an upper middle-class drama took place between the painter and the model. With the assets left to her after the divorce, Lydia established the Gottfried Keller Foundation, which was able to assume the function of a national foundation for the acquisition of Swiss works of art.