Rudolf Zender

Rudolf Zender, born on June 27, 1901 in Rüti (Switzerland) and died on November 24, 1988 in Winterthur, whose real name was Rudolf Zehnder, was a renowned Swiss artist who is considered an important representative of Swiss painting and is regarded as the most outstanding Winterthur painter of the 20th century.

Zehnder’s ancestors were farmers, while his father left the agricultural tradition and worked as a grammar school teacher. The family name Zehnder is associated with the medieval “tithe” tax system. His mother’s line ran an embroidery factory in Teufen in Appenzell, where his mother worked as a needlework teacher.

Rudolf Zender was born in the Zurich Oberland and spent his early childhood with his three sisters in Fägswil-Rüti, where his father worked as a teacher. In 1908, the family moved to Winterthur, where Rudolf attended school and later became a member of the student fraternity Vitodurania. He first came into contact with art through a fellow pupil and the painting collection of her parents, Arthur and Hedy Hahnloser-Bühler, who later became his patrons.

After leaving school, Zender initially began studying history in Zurich and Heidelberg, although his interest was already in art. In Heidelberg, he increasingly devoted himself to drawing and painting, inspired by nature. After the early death of his mother, he decided to train as a primary school teacher, which he completed before taking up a position as a secondary school teacher. With the money he saved, he traveled to Frankfurt am Main and later to Paris, where he finally decided to pursue a career as a painter.

Thanks to a scholarship from the city of Winterthur, Zender studied in Paris at the Académie Ranson under Roger Bissière, a pupil of Georges Braque. During his stay in Paris, he also met the painter Carl (Charles) Montag and was taken in by him in his house in Meudon. Despite his artistic development, Zender fell seriously ill with a lung disease and had to undergo treatment in Davos-Clavadel.

After his return from Paris, Zender became a member of the Winterthur artists’ group and celebrated success with his first exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Winterthur in 1934. During the Second World War, he spent the war years in Winterthur and finally received the E.G. Bührle Prize, which marked his breakthrough as a painter.

After the war, Zender commuted between Paris and Winterthur and cultivated artist friendships with other well-known personalities such as Ernst Leu, Heinz Keller and Germaine Richier. His work is characterized by figurative representation, often showing the simple and everyday, but with a remarkable feeling for atmosphere and light. Rudolf Zender died on November 24, 1988 in Winterthur, where he actively painted and exhibited his works until his death.