Ever since I can remember, I have sketched, drawn, and painted: a portrait of my mother, a still-life, an elephant seen in a zoo, a landscape. The medium was usually graphite or color pencil on paper, sometimes watercolor. The primary inspiration for my artistic activities was my father, Willy Vuilleumier, who made his living, and our family’s, from his art. He considered himself first and foremost a sculptor, as stated by his calling card: Willy Vuilleumier, Sculpteur. Many of his sculptures, including an owl, ducks, a deer, and penguins, all in bronze, can be seen today around the city of Geneva, Switzerland, the country of my birth. This label did not prevent him from executing other kinds of works, however. Murano glass blowers produced vases from his pastel drawings. Oil on board was his preferred medium for his landscapes. He made graphite studies of female nudes that eventually resulted in a larger-than-life statue, now also in Geneva.

Three things from my childhood are anchored in my memory. First, my father’s studio, a large building located in a park, where I spent as much time as my schoolboy schedule allowed and where I watched my father work. Back home, after my evening homework was done, he and I pored over art books illustrating Benin bronzes, Etruscan sculptures, or Dali’s compositions. And we went to art shows, where he introduced me to Geneva’s painters and sculptors. One of them, Robert Hainard, well-known both as a painter and as a naturalist, made exquisite drawings of birds and mammals, from life.