Aloïse Corbaz
(1886–1964)
BornLausanne, Switzerland
DiedGimel, Switzerland
BiographyLushly drawn voluptuous women intertwined with their lovers, sometimes in military uniforms, are depicted over and over again in Aloïse Corbaz’s work. The women’s hair is wild and tousled, their blue eyes are wide, their skin lightly draped in luxurious gowns if anything at all, as they seem to consume their male partners with their bodies. The vibrant hues of Corbaz’s art came from crayon and colored pencil as well as crushed geranium flowers and toothpaste. Decorative ornamentation and bursts of blooms fill every corner of the found paper that she used as her surfaces, giving the work a dramatic power. Corbaz regularly borrowed her subjects from opera, theater, and great historical romances, such as Cleopatra and Mark Antony or Napoléon I and Joséphine. Frequently, her drawings were double-sided or enlarged by stitching together multiple paper sheets with thread or yarn, the whole work becoming florid and expansive.Born in 1886 in Lausanne, Switzerland, Corbaz had an early passion for becoming an opera singer. However, after working as a governess in the court of the German Emperor Wilhelm II and then returning to Switzerland with the outbreak of World War I, she was diagnosed as schizophrenic and institutionalized in 1918. From 1920 on, she would spend the entirety of her life at La Rosière psychiatric hospital in Gimel, Switzerland, where she created hundreds of drawings with the materials available to her. Although she started her work in secret, she was later encouraged and supported by the hospital staff. She also filled numerous notebooks with her drawings, featuring the same sensual themes, with visual narratives that merge and flow together as bodies connect and embrace, the imagery referencing sources ranging from fictional characters to royal and biblical figures.
Through psychiatrist Jacqueline Porret-Forel, Corbaz’s work was brought to the attention of Jean Dubuffet and André Breton, and she became a prominent artist in the growing field of art brut, featured in exhibitions on art and psychopathology in the 1950s. She died in 1964, but her work has continued to beguile viewers with its lavish color and seductive tone, including a large multi-panel work exhibited at the 2024 Venice Biennale.
Allison C. Meier, 2025
This artist’s work was reviewed as part of “Rethinking Biography,” an initiative supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).