Robert Hainard

File:Robert Hainard à sa maison de Bernex (Genève), avec une sculpture de loup.jpg

Robert Hainard at his house in Bernex, with a wolf sculpture

Robert Hainard (11 September 1906 – 26 December 1999) was a Swiss artist, naturalist and author.

Biography

Robert Hainard was born in Geneva. His parents, Philippe Hainard (1879–1938) and Eugénie Hainard-Béchard (1882–1942), were painters. At the age of 12, he left elementary school. His father took care of his general education and began to teach him drawing.

In 1921, he entered the Arts Industriels, where he met his wife, Germaine Roten (1902–1990) whom he married in 1929. They had two children, and in 1938 settled in the Geneva commune of Bernex.

In 1924 he invented a new process of woodcutting and in 1929 he exhibited his first animal prints at the Salon genevois de l'œuvre.

Robert Hainard published works on nature and wildlife, based on direct observation, including Wild Mammals of Europe (1949), illustrated by his sketches taken on the spot.

Committed to nature, he participated in 1928 in the creation of the Association for the creation and maintenance of nature reserves in the canton of Geneva, currently Pro Natura Geneva.

In the Swiss League for the Protection of Nature, he supported the Information-Nature Center of Champ-Pittet by offering his royalties from the sale of a sculpture of a crested grebe with its chick.

In 1972, the executive of Grisons considered killing 1000 deers, with the agreement of the federal authorities and the federal commission of the Swiss National Park, because deer numbers had increased and they were causing damage to the forests. The park rangers expressed their indignation and many specialists and nature conservationists proposed instead a regulation by introducing predators. Robert Hainard agrees, because in Obwald, where eight lynx were introduced, the results are conclusive: they feed on weak deer and promote the mobility of the herds, which prevents major damage to the forests. He believes that a reintroduction of the wolf, the natural enemy of the deer, would be even more effective, but he deplores the fact that an "old popular terror" considers the wolf to be the enemy of man, which is not true in the conditions of the Swiss National Park.

He inspires a generation of young naturalists by his relationship with nature, his ability to integrate and hide in the wilderness for hours, day and night, in all seasons. His respect for animals leads him to understand them and allows him to capture their image without disturbing them.

Works

• Et la nature? Réflexions d'un peintre (1943)
• Nature et mécanisme (1946)
• Mammifères sauvages d'Europe (1948–1949)
• Jagd mit dem Skizzenblock (1966)
• Défense de l'image (1967)
• Chasse au crayon, en dessinant les bêtes sauvages (1969)
• Une morale à la mesure de notre puissance (1970)
• Expansion et nature, une morale à la mesure de notre puissance (1972)
• Les réserves naturelles (1973)
• Croquis de terrain (1975)
• Quand le Rhône coulait libre (1979)
• Images du Jura sauvage (1983)
• Le guetteur de lune (1986)
• Le miracle d'être (1986)
• Défense de l'image (1987)
• Le monde sauvage de Robert Hainard (1988)
• Nuits d'hiver au bord du Rhône (1988)
• Croquis d'Afrique (1989)
• Germaine Hainard-Roten (1990)
• Le monde plein (1991)
• Sculptures (1993)
• La Méthode de mon père. Enseignement du dessin et du modelage (1994)
• Chœur de loups et autres histoires d’ours (1999)

References

• Blanchet, Maurice (1985). Robert Hainard: avec une biographie, une bibliographie et une documentation complète mises à jour sur le peintre et son œuvre. Neuchâtel: La Baconnière.
• Carbonnaux, Stéphan (2006). Robert Hainard: Chasseur au Crayon. Saint-Claude-de-Diray Bernex: Hesse.
• Hesse, J. (1998). Entretien sur la Gravure, avec Robert Hainard. Éditions Hesse.
• Crispini, Nicolas (1996). La Trace: Approche de Germaine et Robert Hainard, 1981-1990. Genève: Slatkine.
• Miller, Roland de (1987). Robert Hainard: Peintre et Philosophe de la Nature. Paris: Sang de la Terre.