The following description has been prepared entirely by the current owner, Roberts S. Fastov, Esq., and, at the collector’s request, has not been edited by Sloans & Kenyon

Note 1) The following Toepffer biographical information was taken from the Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, Berne. Rédaction Lucien Boissonnas, which is on the internet.

Toepffer, Wolfgang-Adam

20.5.1765, Geneva - 10.8.1847, Geneva

© Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, Berne. Rédaction Lucien Boissonnas

Is 14 years old, Wolfgang-Adam Toepffer completes his training of engraver near Jean-François Hess and Lacroix Isaac-Jacob in Geneva, François Lardy and Carl Hackert in Lausanne, then works for the Genevese bookstore. 

In 1786, the Company of Arts, which sees in him the successor of Lacroix, offers a training course in Paris to him. A three years stay in the engraver Nicolas Delaunay makes him discover the Academy (Joseph Benoît Suvée) and the artistic mediums. Toepffer is initiated with the watercolour with the architect Jean-Thomas Thibaut and attends the painter Jean-Louis Demarne.

Toepffer returns to Geneva in June 1789. The French revolution leaves it without work. It exposes some portraits (watercolour) in 1792 and follows Pierre-Louis Of Bank in his landscape campaigns. It turns to the oil-base paint, fact of the caricatures (watercolour) exposed in 1798 in Geneva. The same year, it innovates by showing a sepia with the Living room of Louvre. Its paintings of kind gain successes, especially abroad.

At the time of stays in Paris, it meets Carle Vernet and Alive-Denon Dominique. The mother of the tsar and the Joséphine ex-empress buy paintings to him. Toepffer obtains a gold medal with the exposure of Louvre in 1812.

Arrived to a relative ease, it will be able to raise as middle-class man his son, Rodolphe, and its two daughters. Influential member of the Company of Arts, Toepffer takes part in the Genevese cultural life. Its customers extend themselves to the Restoration: an English patron the fact of coming to England; its watercolours are worth success in France to him and elsewhere. Underestimated a long time, Toepffer counts among the best Swiss painter-draftsmen of its time and supports also the comparison in a broader context.

Note 2) This Toeppfer quiet, pastoral landscape is typical of the subkect matter and mood and tone of his smaller paintings and is a good example of a pure Toeppfer landscape of a Swiss lake with mountains in the distance without a figure or with a handful of figures The following Toepffer auction records, per Artprice.com and other sources, make clear the following, which warrant the conclusion that the presale estimate of $4,000-$6,000 is reasonable and justifiable. Toepffer was and is very famous and valuable in Switzerland and other countries. Some of his large landscapes with multiple figures bring several hundred thousand dollars at auction. See, e.g.:

Title/Subject: Foire de Village, 1815, signed. Oil on canvas. 33.07 in. x 41.54 in. Sold for $424,460 on 12/03/2007 at Christie's Zurich, Switzerland.

Title/Subject: Fête Villageoise, 1816, signed. Oil on canvas. 33.07 in. x 41.73 in. Sold for $477,520 on 12/03/2007 at Christie's Zurich, Switzerland.

Title/Subject: La Promenade de la Treille a Genève, 1820, unsigned. Oil on canvas. 36.22 in. x 44.09 in. Sold for $895,210 on 3/19/2007 at Christie's Zurich, Switzerland.

Some of Toepffer’s smaller landscapes, a number of them with figures, bring relatively significant prices. These further support the conclusion that presale estimates in the range of $4,000-$6,000 are both reasonable and justifiable.

Title/Subject: Autumn Landscape with Figures in Front of Rocks, signed with monogram. Oil on canvas. 22 5/8 in. x 29 7/8 in. Sold for $21,000 on 1/27/2011 at Sotheby’s, New York.

Paysage avec Personnages sur un Cours D’eau, signed. Oil on board. 14 5/8 in. x 20 1/2 in. Sold for $3,012 on 12/4/2009 at Koller, Zurich, Switzerland.

Title/Subject: Title, unsigned. Oil on board. 11.81 in. x 16.54 in. Sold for $6,582 on 12/05/2008 at Galerie Koller, AG, Zurich, Switzerland.

Title/Subject: Paysage Savoyard avec Personnages et Rive, 1816, signed. Oil on canvas. 19.88 in. x 24.80 in. Sold for $49,674 on 12/01/2008 at Christie’s, Zurich, Switzerland.

Title/Subject: Paysage avec Huit Personnages et un Cheval, 1819, signed. Oil on panel. 11.42 in. x 14.57 in. Sold for $58,360 on 12/03/2007 at Christie's Zurich, Switzerland.

Title/Subject: Paysage avec Lavandières Près D'une Chapelle, signed. Oil on canvas. 15. 75 in. x 20.87 in. Sold for $44,760 3/19/2007 at Christie's Zurich, Switzerland.

Title/Subject: River Landscape with a View of Salève, unsigned, but inscribed on verso. Oil on paper board. 10 1/4 in. x 13 1/6 in. Sold for $13,000 on 5/27/2004 at Sotheby’s, New York.

Title/Subject: Paysage avec Figures, Environs de Genève, signed. Oil on canvas. 12 3/8 in. x 15 3/4 in. Sold for $46,984 on 12/7/2000 at Sotheby’s, Zurich, Switzerland.

See the following sales of mixed media works and watercolors by Toepffer, which also support presale estimates in the range of $4,000-$6,000, especially insofar as oil paintings are generally more valuable than works on paper. E.g.:

Title/Subject: Jeune Fille À La Cascade, 1844, signed. Mixed media on paper. 8.66 in. x 11.42 in. Sold for $16,909 on 3/19/2007 at Christie's Zurich, Switzerland.

Title/Subject: Le Pêcheur, signed. Mixed media. 5.28 in. x 8.15 in. Sold for $4,376 on 3/19/2007 at Christie's Zurich, Switzerland.

Title/Subject: Paysage Boisé avec Deux Personnages, unsigned. Watercolor on paper. 4.96 in. x 5.51 in. Sold for $4,476 on 3/19/2007 at Christie's Zurich, Switzerland.

Title/Subject: Title, signed. Watercolor on paper. 9.02 in. x 12.36 in. Sold for $10,941 on 3/19/2007 at Christie's Zurich, Switzerland.

Title/Subject: La Promenade de Saint-Antoine à Genève, signed. Mixed Media. 12.80 in. x 18.27 in. Sold for $13,930 on 03/19/2007 at Christie's Zurich, Switzerland.