Bouquet de lilas blanc et pivoines roses, Circa 1936

Gabriel Edouard Haberjahn  

Gabriel Eduard HABERJAHN is a Norwegian painter.

The Haberjahn family, of Norwegian origin - Habrian or Haberian - had settled in Germany at the beginning of the 19th century, before settling in Yverdon in 1831, where Yan-Georg Haberjahn was to receive the bourgeoisie in 1845. He founded a factory. of lampisterie-tinsmith, located in the free zone which is not yet built (currently zone of the station).

Gabriel-Edouard Haberjahn who was born in Yverdon on November 4, 1890 is his grandson.

In 1905, he became a student of the School of Industrial Arts in Geneva and in 1913 continued his studies in Paris. Back in Switzerland, he carried out decoration work (theater, landscapes…).

In 1926, he was called by the Department of Public Instruction in Geneva to teach decorative painting. Then he created the teaching of advertising and technical workshops (photo, engraving, lithography). Haberjahn became, in 1942, dean of the School of Fine Arts, Decorative Arts and of the Normal School of Drawing.

A friend describes him with these words: Gabriel Haberjahn is a painter whose talent, endowed with extreme sensitivity, leads us like a poet to dreams, reverie and also meditation. Its palette of rare subtlety allows it to play with a very nuanced and very precise luminosity. Landscape painter, portrait painter, draftsman, engraver, mastering oil and gouache, with surprising and often spontaneous techniques, he is linked to the great poetic reality of the School of Paris of which he is one of the prestigious representatives.

Work carried out: creation of a monumental enamel for the Swiss pavilion at the Paris Exhibition in 1937; in 1939, in Zurich, facade of the Watchmaking Palace at the National Exhibition ...

In 1912, first exhibition at the Rath Museum with 100 works, then numerous exhibitions abroad (Paris, Prague, Munich, New York). In 1927, he produced the sets for the play entitled Pestalozzi, a creation for the 100th anniversary of the pedagogue's death, a poster (portrait of Pestalozzi) and a woodcut representing Pestalozzi and children.

In 1930 he became a member of the commission of the Museum of Arts and History and member of numerous cantonal and federal juries.

In addition to the deanery that he will assume for 14 years, he pursues a fruitful and mature artistic activity, traveling through Italy, Provence, fond of Paris and Valais, in particular Champéry.

He died in Geneva on May 13, 1956.