The country children

Albert Anker (1 April 1831 – 16 July 1910) was a Swiss painter and illustrator who has been called the "national painter" of Switzerland because of his enduringly popular depictions of 19th-century Swiss rural life.

Born in Ins as the son of veterinarian Samuel Anker (then a member of the constituent assembly of the Canton of Bern) and Marianne Elisabeth (born Gatschet). In 1836, his father became veterinarian in Neuchâtel, and the Anker family moved there. Anker attended school in Neuchâtel, where his teacher in sketching was Frédéric-Wilhelm Moritz. He and Auguste Bachelin, later a fellow artist, took private drawing lessons with Louis Wallinger from 1845 to 1848.

In 1849, he enrolled into a Gymnasium in Bern, graduating with the Matura in 1851. Afterwards, he studied theology, beginning in 1851 at the University of Bern and continuing at the University of Halle, Germany. But in Germany he was inspired by the great art collections, and in 1854, he convinced his father to agree to an artistic career. In Neuchâtel he began using the name Albert, because it was easier to pronounce for his French-speaking classmates.