Achille Koetschet 1862-1895

Originally from Delémont. Born on June 18, 1862, in St-Imier, in the Swiss Jura, he died on November 4, 1895, in Camiers (Pas-de-Calais). Landscape painter.

He attended primary and secondary schools in St-Imier. From a young age, he felt a passion for drawing; however, his father refused to allow him to pursue this vocation and sent him to Geneva to complete an apprenticeship as a pharmacist. He remained there for three years before entering a large trading house in Marseille. Nevertheless, he did not forget his passion, and when his father moved to Paris, K. joined him and was admitted to the Académie Julian (1885). He subsequently undertook several trips to Africa (1889–1891), followed by a two-year stay in Switzerland, before retiring to the Pas-de-Calais, where he died at the young age of thirty-two.

He exhibited notably at the Exhibition of French Artists in Basel (1887), at the Salon of the Société des Artistes Français (1888–1891), at the Salons of the Société Nationale (1893–1895), and at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in Bern (1890 and 1892).