Lithograph by Peter Stettler – Rural Landscape
This large-format lithograph by Peter Stettler, dated 1983, presents a stark rural scene reduced to its most essential elements. A solitary farmhouse and adjoining structures sit low on the horizon, set within a broad, snow-covered foreground. A faint curving track draws the eye inward toward the buildings and onward into the open distance, while sparse trees and utility poles punctuate the otherwise quiet expanse.
The work is signed and dated in pencil by the artist at the lower right and numbered 33/60 at the lower left, indicating a limited edition impression. Stettler’s handling of line is central to the composition: the sky is constructed from dense, restless cross-hatching that sweeps horizontally across the sheet, creating a strong sense of atmosphere and weather. This animated upper register contrasts with the luminous stillness of the snow below, where lighter, more economical marks suggest cold, silence, and space.
Characteristic of Stettler’s mature work, the lithograph avoids anecdote or narrative. Human presence is implied rather than depicted, and the scene appears suspended in time. The balance between energetic mark-making and contemplative subject matter exemplifies Stettler’s quiet, inward-looking vision, in which landscape becomes less a record of place than a meditation on solitude, atmosphere, and perception.
1939 –Basel, Switzerland - 1998
Peter Stettler was a Swiss painter, graphic artist, and art educator closely associated with Basel’s postwar artistic milieu. Born on 9 July 1939, he grew up in a strongly artistic household as the son of the painter and teacher Gustav Stettler. His earliest works were created under this direct influence, and his formative drawings and paintings reflect his father’s distinctive approach to composition and subject matter. Stettler trained in Basel, completing a Schriftenmalerlehre (letter-painting apprenticeship) and studying at the Allgemeine Gewerbeschule, where he later returned as a teacher of drawing and painting.
While his early work bears clear traces of his father’s stylistic language, Stettler gradually moved away from this inheritance to develop a more personal and introspective visual voice. A significant turning point came with his stay in Paris in 1967, after which his paintings increasingly focused on quiet interiors, urban settings, and figures placed within restrained architectural or spatial frameworks. His mature work is marked by calm surfaces, subtle tonal relationships, and a sense of emotional distance, exploring the tension between human presence and the surrounding environment rather than narrative or expressionistic gesture.
Alongside his independent artistic practice, Stettler was a committed educator at the Basel School for Design, where he influenced generations of students through his emphasis on drawing, observation, and disciplined craftsmanship. His work is represented in regional Swiss collections and is preserved within the Archiv Regionaler Künstler*innen-Nachlässe Basel (ARK Basel). Though his career was cut short by his death in 1998 at the age of 59, Stettler’s paintings and graphic works continue to be reassessed for their quiet originality and their distinctive place within late-20th-century Swiss art.
Full sheet: Some light spotting in margins
Peter Stettler – Artist’s Signature
