Welti-Escher, Lydia

ART PATRON (SWITZERLAND)
BORN 10 Jul 1858, Zürich: Enge - DIED 12 Dec 1891, Champel, near Genève
CAUSE OF DEATH suicide by gassing
GRAVE LOCATION Genève, Genève: Cimetière de Plainpalais, Rue des Rois (E-501)

Daughter of railway pioneer Alfed Escher. She married Friedrich-Emil Welti, the son of the powerful statesman Emil Welti. Together with her husband she supported the painter Karl Stauffer-Bern, but in Florence Lydia started an affair with him. This caused a scandal that took Stauffer-Bern to prison and Lydia to a mental institution.

In 1890 she divorced her husband and settled at Hampel (near Geneva). With her fortune she founded the Gottfried-Keller Stiftung. Karl Stauffer-Bern killed himself in Florence in 1890 and in 1891, only 33 years old, she did the same at her home by turning on the gas.

Related persons
• was a friend of Keller, Gottfried

Images

The grave of Lydia Welti-Escher at the Cimetière de Plainpalais, Genève.
Picture by Androom (06 Dec 2007)

 

Sources
Lydia Welti-Escher - Wikipedia


Welz, Friedrich Maximilian

Published: 12 Jul 2008
Last update: 16 May 2020