Numa Donzé

Numa Donzé was born in Basel on November 6, 1885 and died in Riehen on October 25, 1952. He was a renowned Swiss painter.
The son of Charles Gustave Donzé (1838-1921) and Wilhelmine Klingele (1847-1917), Numa Donzé grew up with his sister Valerie and three step-siblings on Steinengraben in Basel. His talent for drawing was recognized at an early age and encouraged by his parents. After completing his compulsory schooling, he attended the Allgemeine Gewerbeschule in Basel and was taught by renowned artists such as Fritz Schider and Rudolf Löw.
Like many artists from Basel, Donzé studied in Munich under Heinrich Knirr and in 1905 undertook a trip to Rome accompanied by a German painter friend. In 1906, he created his masterpiece “The Liberation”, an idiosyncratic interpretation of the legend of the knight George, in which he placed the liberated in the foreground instead of the liberator.
Donzé’s early work included landscapes of the Rhine and Provence, which brought him recognition at the age of twenty. During and after the First World War, he belonged to the group of dark-toned painters that also included Otto Roos, Paul Basilius Barth, Jean-Jacques Lüscher, Heinrich Müller, Otto Klein and Karl Theophil Dick. This group, known as “Basel’s classic generation of painters”, brought about a revolutionary development in the Basel art scene. Their breakthrough came in 1907 with a joint exhibition at the Kunsthalle Basel. They maintained a close exchange with other artist groups such as “Das neue Leben” and “Rot-Blau” and had a significant influence on Basel painting until the 1920s.
At the end of 1907, Donzé traveled to Paris, where he was inspired by artists such as Gustave Courbet, Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin. He lived in an old monastery in Montmartre and shared a studio with Jean-Jacques Lüscher. From 1910 to 1915, he produced important works, including landscapes of Alsace and the Rhine as well as large murals such as the Allegory of Life on the façade of the Basler National-Zeitung.
From 1914 to 1918, Donzé served as a border soldier on active service. In the 1920s, he was mainly active as a commissioned artist, creating the mural “Johannes der Täufer” on behalf of the Kunstkredit Basel-Stadt. Together with Paul Basilius Barth and his son Heinrich Barth, he traveled to Algeria as far as Biskra in 1922.
In 1926, Donzé created the fresco “Weinernte” for the façade of the Rebleutenzunft on Freie Strasse in Basel. He also took part in international exhibitions, including the 18th Biennale di Venezia in 1932.
Numa Donzé spent the last years of his life with his sister Valerie Brunner-Donzé and her husband in Riehen. During this time, he made frequent trips to Italy, Paris, Provence, the Balearic Islands, the Markgräflerland and San Nazzaro in Ticino, where he painted numerous landscapes, including in the Basel region.
He was buried next to his longtime girlfriend Helene Jetzler at the Hörnli cemetery in Riehen. Jean-Jacques Lüscher held the obituary for Numa Donzé, his esteemed artist friend.