Cuno Amiet was born in Solothurn on 18 March 1868. From 1884-1886 he was a pupil of the Solothurn painter Frank Buchser (1828-1890). From 1886 he studied at Munich Academy of Art. In 1888 he moved to Paris where he shared lodgings with Giovanni Giacometti (1868-1933), the father of the famous Alberto Giacometti. From 1888-1891 he studied with the Nabis Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard, Maurice Denis and Paulo Sérusier at the Académie Julian. In 1892 he spent some time in Paul Gauguin's artists' colony in Pont-Aven, which left a lasting impression on him. In 1893 he started to ex­hibit with the Artistes indépendants in Paris. In 1898 he returned to Switzerland and built himself a house in Oschwand, a mountain hamlet in Canton Bern. In 1906 he was in­vited to join the German group Die Brücke and took part in their first exhibition in Dres­den. In 1912, like Hans Arp and other avantgarde artists, he became a member of Der moderne Bund, which held a highly regarded exhibition at the Kunsthaus Zurich in 1912. After the death of Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918) Amiet became the most influential artist in Switzerland and exercised many important functions in the service of art and the artistic community. In 1919 the University of Berne awarded him an honorary doctorate, and in 1938 he was made an honorary citizen of See-berg, the community where he lived. In 1931 fifty predominantly early works of his were lost in a fire at Munich's Glass Palace. Amiet died aged 93 at Oschwand on 6 July 1961.