Barbara Basting

Barbara Basting

Barbara Basting worked as a cultural editor and currently heads the visual arts division in the City of Zurich’s Culture Department.

The Swiss alchemist who invented a new shade of blue

Barbara Basting 19.03.2026 Johann Jacob Diesbach was trying to develop a red lacquer. However, to his surprise, he came up with a vibrant blue. This is the story of a Berlin-based Swiss inventor.
Berlin blue, also known as Prussian blue, revolutionised the world of colours in the early 18th century.

Inventing Saxon Switzerland

Barbara Basting 06.01.2026 The mountain peaks and cliff tops of Saxony reminded Swiss artist Adrian Zingg of his homeland. He captured them in his drawings, thus helping them on their way to fame, and coined the name by which the region is still known today: Saxon Switzerland.
Print by Adrian Zingg, created in 1770. The landscape is that of Saxony but could just as easily be Switzerland.

A watchmaker: portrait of a bygone era

Barbara Basting 21.10.2025 Edouard Kaiser of La Chaux-de-Fonds was from a watchmaking family and dedicated a part of his artwork to the trade, which was in upheaval at the time.
Edouard Kaiser’s L'Horloger combines realistic elements with the idealistic image of an unspoilt (craftsman’s) world.

A Swiss painter in America

Barbara Basting 19.08.2025 Frank Buchser is one of the most colourful figures in 19th century Swiss art. A number of his works were produced during the several years he spent in the United States.
Buchser and America seemed like a good match. In Old Virginia he depicted the country’s idyllic side.

Capturing water on canvas

Barbara Basting 22.04.2025 The Rhine Falls in Schaffhausen has been a popular subject matter in the art world for centuries. English painter J.M.W. Turner captured the power of the water on canvas particularly impressively in the early 19th century.
J.M.W. Turner made the Rhine Falls the centrepiece of a famous painting in the early 19th century.

The Swiss teacher of the Impressionists

Barbara Basting 18.02.2025 Swiss painter Charles Gleyre (1806-1874), from Chevilly in the canton of Vaud, was an illustrious figure in the 19th century. Painters such as Albert Anker und Auguste Renoir studied at his Paris studio. Gleyre’s own works fused influences from Romanticism and Impressionism.
Self-portrait of Charles Gleyre, between 1830 and 1834 (detail).

How Swiss period rooms influenced American museums

Barbara Basting 03.01.2025 After it opened in 1898, the Swiss National Museum in Zurich and its period rooms served as an important model for museums in the United States.
The National Museum Zurich – shown here on a postcard – was held up in the United States as a model of how a museum should look.

When King Cotton ruled the world

Barbara Basting 01.10.2024 Cotton was the most important commodity of the 19th century. Yet very few artists took an interest in it. One who did was Edgar Degas. His painting of a cotton office in New Orleans is a truly spectacular work.
An eye for economic themes: painter Edgar Degas photographed in 1895.