Here, we present the results of their research, as a preview of the show. Trachtenbild von Stans β Valentina Shasivari. It was part of the second cycle of paintings presenting Swiss costumes, so called Trachten , as they were imagined to be typical of Swiss people at the time. The cycle counts around 46 paintings, subdivided by region and usually showing a couple or a family doing specific chores. Here he relied more on typical elements of genre-paining to conceive an idea of Swiss peasantry.
On the Trachtenbild von Stans Reinhard sets the peasant family drinking milk in front of the ruins of a rustical building, a common visual code for originality and timelessness since 17th century landscape painting.
In reality though these ideas were a product of 18th century scientific discourses in the wake of Swiss nation building. It is not a coincidence though that the long-lasting image of Switzerland as a heavenly Arcadia of the alps was born with the onset of industrialization, which never seems to be a topic in the images circulating at the time.
The image production of this time and the invention of the Trachtenbild along with it can thus be read as a sort of aesthetic compensation in a time of economic changes and agrarian reforms, spreading ideals of a simple life in humility of good peasants living in harmony with nature.
To know more: Trachtenbild von Stans. Trachten were becoming a highly demanded image type in Switzerland at the time and by the s were exported all around Europe. The cycle counts around 46 oil paintings measuring around 70 x 60 cm, subdivided by region and usually showing a couple or a family doing specific chores.
