(b Geneva, 31 Jan 1799; d Geneva, 8 June 1846). Writer, teacher, draughtsman and painter, son of (1) Adam-Wolfgang T?pffer. He was not able to become a professional painter due to an eye disease; therefore, after a period of study in Paris in 1819-20, he returned to Geneva and opened a boarding-house for foreign students in 1823. On holidays with these students he described their excursions in autobiographical accounts that were accompanied by drawings. These were collected and later published as Voyages en zigzag (1844). He was Professor of Literature at the Acad?mie de Gen?ve from 1832 and, as well as teaching, wrote novels and short, humorous romantic narratives. In his spare time he drew caricatures, attempting to bring out the character of each subject. They were shown to Goethe, who encouraged T?pffer to publish them; Albums de caricatures (1837) is accompanied by captions relating the stories of such figures as M. Cr?pin ('Mr Frizzy Hair'), M. Vieuxbois ('Mr Woodenhead') and le Docteur Festus ('Dr Broadbottom'). In the 1830s and 1840s some made their first appearance in serial form in various Genevan newspapers. Very popular in his lifetime, they may be seen as precursors of the comic-strip cartoon. He recorded his meditations on drawing and painting in Essai de physiognomonie (1845) and R?flexions et menus propos d'un peintre genevois ou essai sur le beau dans les arts (1872). His few paintings are mostly local landscapes done in a romantic style (e.g. Landscape near Meillerie, 1841; Geneva, Mus. A. & Hist.).

Part of the T?pffer family

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