Born in Mörigen on Lake Biel the only child of Hans Gertsch (b. 1900), a village schoolteacher, and Frieda Gertsch, née Wälti (b. 1904), daughter of the proprietor of the Sternen restaurant in Mörigen. His father had studied singing at the Neuenburg Conservatory and was a part-time singer (baritone).

Formative experiences of nature in the garden and on the wild shores of Lake Biel.

24 January, first drawing Die Schwiegermutter tanzt (Mother-in-law dances). From then on his father collects his childhood drawings.

The family moves to 64 Studerstrasse in Bern where his father works as a teacher at Enge primary school.

Enrolment at the school in Enge. Franz remembers very well being taught by his father in the third and fourth form.

Visits to the city’s art museum with his father. He is particularly impressed by Ferdinand Hodler.

In his father’s library he discovers books on Leonardo da Vinci (Dmitri Mereschkowski, Leonardo da Vinci. Historischer Roman, Munich 1920) and Dürer (Moritz Thausing, Albrecht Dürer. Geschichte seines Lebens und seiner Kunst, with 15 illustrations and 24 prints, Lother Brieger (ed.), Berlin 1928).

Receives an oil paint box as a Christmas gift. On 30 August 1940 he paints Das schlechte Gewissen (Bad Conscience), after Hodler, oil on paper.

Eva, after Albrecht Dürer, oil on cardboard. The family moves to 110 Hochfeldstrasse in Bern. Franz Gertsch suffers from life-threatening cardiovalvulitis and is excused from school until the spring of 1942. He feels the illness helps him greatly to mature and now focuses exclusively on painting.

Attends Münzinger secondary school; start of his school ordeal.

Gertsch paints and draws assiduously during his school years.

Franz Gertsch delves into books on Hodler by Charles Albert Loosli. The latter advises him to train as an artist and specialise in nude drawing. Gertsch, influenced by Ingres, makes his first nude drawings in Paolo’s studio.

Selbstbildnis (Self-portrait), pencil drawing. First linear woodcuts and linocuts.

Leaves school in spring – “one of the happiest days of my life”. Against his parents’ will he decides to become a freelance painter. In summer he travels with Sergius Golowin to Paris to visit the studio run by Golowin’s father at 7 Impasse du Rouet. Greatly impressed by post-war Bohemian life in Paris, first visits to the Louvre, excursions to Normandy and Brittany.

Attends the free painting school run by Max von Mühlenen, then the leading modern painter in Bern, who studied under André Lhote. Continues his nude studies and is introduced to von Mühlenen’s colour theory (red = space; blue = figure, object). In 1949/50 he attends additional classes at the School of Applied Art in Bern, although he skips most of them.

Second trip to Paris in the summer. Represented for the first time at the Bern Christmas exhibition with the painting Werther. Initial designs for the woodcut series This und Weit (This and Weit), cut after his return from Paris, pulled on Emil Jenzer’s hand press in Burgdorf and self-published with the help of the Avalun publishing house in Bern in late 1950. The work is issued in an edition of 200 copies, with each book costing 20 francs.

Unarmed medical recruit school in Basel. Discharged after five weeks because of a heart defect. Travels to Paris the day after his discharge from the recruit school on a 1,400-franc De Harres scholarship (forerunner of the Louise Aeschlimann scholarship). Attends the Académie de la Grande Chaumière for just one day. The level there strikes him as low after what he has experienced under von Mühlenen and he dislikes the atmosphere. He prefers to visit the city’s museums, where he acquires in-depth knowledge through his own studies. In the summer, food poisoning forces him to return prematurely to Bern, where he attempts to find a new form of figurative painting.

Irregular visits to Hans Schwarzenbach, from whom he learns the techniques employed by the Old Masters and in whose richly stocked library he immerses himself in art history.

Trip to Florence (Uffizi), Monterchi and Arezzo (Piero della Francesca). Ein Sommer (A Summer), woodcut and text by Franz Gertsch, is printed by Stämpfli in Bern as the annual gift of the Bernische Kunstgesellschaft (1954).

Selbstbildnis (Self-portrait); marriage to Denise Kohler (b. 24 July 1934), honeymoon in Scotland.

Crisis, depression and disorientation resulting in works such as Nebellandschaft (Misty Landscape) and Parzivals Aufbruch (Parsifal’s Departure).

Publication of Begegnung (Encounter), woodcut and text by Franz Gertsch, printed by Emil Jenzer in Burgdorf.

Birth of daughter Renate Suna in Bern.

Second trip to Scotland, during which he makes numerous landscape watercolours.

Tristan Bärmann, a fairytale novella of his own illustrated with 20 woodcuts, is printed by Haller & Jenzer in Burgdorf.

In spring third trip to Scotland, where he marries Maria Meer (b. 27 June 1936) in Oban. Birth of daughter Silvia Maria in Bern.

Together with Sergius Golowin, Zeno Zürcher and Niklaus von Steiger, Gertsch sets up the discussion panel Junkere 37 in a basement in the old city centre of Bern. Numerous landscape watercolours during his autumn stay in Saas Fee.

Fourth trip to Scotland to paint in watercolours. This time he undertakes the long journey alone in his Citroën 2CV. Birth of daughter Hanne-Lore in Bern. Tagebuch eines Malers (Diary of a Painter), written and drawn on zinc foils, is published by Stämpfli in Bern. Oil paintings inspired by Giorgio Morandi: Harlekina (Harlequin Girl), Gelber Schnee (Yellow Snow), Der Maler (The Painter), Der Schriftsteller (The Writer).

Birth of son Hans Albrecht (“Brecht”) in Bern. Franz Gertsch is greatly influenced by pop art, which he sees as a vehicle for creating realistic contemporary images. First collages after family scenes freely painted in gouache, rendered in large format in emulsion paint (Der Grosse Spielmann – The Large Bandsman).

Awarded Louise Aeschlimann scholarship. The collage Liebespaar (Lovers), designed as a mural for the grammar school and teacher training college building in Langenthal, causes a scandal, the motif allegedly being inappropriate for a schoolhouse. Other images and collages are inspired by photos from pop magazines: Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones, Françoise Hardy on a Formula One racing car, girls in mini-skirts, Mireille, Colette, Anne.

Birth of son Bendicht Mattia (“Benz”) in Bern. Trip to Amsterdam in February together with Jean-Christophe Ammann and a number of young artists from Bern to visit the major Roy Lichtenstein exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum.

Produces the final collage with Maria in spring. Dead-end feeling; Franz Gertsch produces nothing else for several months. Monte Lema experience in autumn: he decides to interpret photographic originals as a painter and to abandon any abstraction. Franz Gertsch: “Paint the world like someone who has just landed on the mountain from some other planet”. Gertsch paints his first picture in the new style in six days: Huaa…!, a galloping rider with sabre raised, based on a still from the anti-war film The Charge of the Light Brigade. The picture is listed as number one in the catalogue of his works; earlier images are omitted. First large-scale realistic paintings after his own photographs and painted after slides.

Gertsch paints with powder colours mixed in emulsion on unprimed thin white half-linen sheet. In rapid succession he produces the family portraits Hanne-Lore, Brecht, Hanne-Lore, Silvia, Maria und Benz, Vietnam after a press photo from Time-Life magazine and Junkere 37. These are followed by the portraits Jean-Frédéric Schnyder and Harry Szeeman. A short stay in Kranenburg to visit the Franz Eggenschwiler exhibition provides the inspiration for Markus Raetz, Urs Lüthi and Kranenburg.

Invited by Jean-Christophe Ammann to stage the first solo exhibition to mark the re-opening of the Kunstmuseum Luzern in 1972. While visiting the exhibition rooms he meets Luciano Castelli and his friends. Medici is based on a snapshot of the five young men. Gertsch decides to produce a few monumental works in bright colours rather than a lot of small images for the planned exhibition. He rents the huge loft in the Gasser brewery. Produces Maria mit Kindern (Maria with Children), Aelggi Alp and Medici. Travels to Saintes Maries de la Mer in late May. Uses the photos taken there to paint his first two Saintes-Maries pictures.

Large solo exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Luzern. In March trip to New York, where he produces the lithograph Jean-Frédéric Schnyder in the Sherwood studio for the documenta-non documenta realists portfolio. Meets the gallery owner Nancy Hoffman. In a New York painting supplies shop he discovers Cotton Duck No. 10, which was originally made for sails and is now frequently used by a number of contemporary American artists. He takes a few metres home with him in a suitcase. From then on he works exclusively on this heavy, very densely woven cotton fabric. Whereas the linen sheets he used previ0usly readily absorbed the paint, the resistance of the new material significantly extends the painting process. The first painting on the new ground is Saintes Maries de la Mer III. The collector Peter Ludwig purchases Medici, which promptly achieves international fame at documenta 5. Gertsch is subsequently invited to a series of realism exhibitions.

Gertsch attends a number of parties given by Luciano Castelli and his friends in a dilapidated art nouveau villa in Reckenbühlstrasse in Lucerne. The photos he takes there are used for the works Franz und Luciano, Gaby und Luciano, At Luciano’s House, Barbara und Gaby, Marina schminkt Luciano (Marina puts make-up on Luciano), Luciano I and Luciano II. Exhibition at the Nancy Hoffman Gallery in New York.

German Academic Exchange Service scholarship. Gertsch moves to Berlin with his family for 18 months. Barbara und Gaby, made at the studio in Bundesallee, is purchased by Dieter Honisch for the Nationalgalerie Berlin.

Move to an old farmhouse surrounded by a large area of land in Rüschegg, Canton of Bern.

Patti Smith gives a performance on 20 October at the Cologne gallery run by Veith Turske. Gertsch photographs her incessantly with his Nikon camera, which is equipped with flash and motor. Incensed by the constant disturbance she crumples up her poem sheet and flings it in his face. The image Patti Smith II captures this moment. Patti Smith I, III and IV are also based on photos taken during the performance.

Participates in the Biennale in Venice.

Patti Smith performs at the Kunstmuseum Bern to mark the purchase of Patti Smith II. The evening before the performance she and her husband, Fred Smith, visit Franz Gertsch and a number of invited guests at his house in Rüschegg. Instead of singing, as she was expected to do, she uses the microphone for a short address in which she talks about the wish she cherished as a young girl of being a muse and model for an artist, which has now come true, and thanks Gertsch’s wife Maria for removing any obstacles to his creative work. This touching moment is captured in Patti Smith V.

Self-portrait after a photo taken by Maria Gertsch heralds the start of a series of portraits. It is followed by the six large female portraits: Irene, Tabea, Verena, Christina, Johanna I and Johanna II. The series reveals a linear development. The designs are no longer based on snapshots but on carefully lit studio photographs. First the spatial background is omitted, followed by all contemporary attributes, until finally in Johanna only the detailed facial narrative remains.

Gertsch and his wife Maria travel to the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. The photos taken there are later used for the Guadeloupe triptych.

Johanna II is exhibited with great success for just two days at the Kunsthalle Bern. All six female portraits are displayed in a single room at the Kunsthalle Basel. Gertsch finds their presence there so forceful, however, that he muses over what he can do to veil their faces. In his search for something finer, gentler he gives increasing thought to the possibility of a realistic colour woodcut. During his quest for a technique that will facilitate flowing transitions from light to dark he begins to experiment with little pear wood panels. One day he uses the smallest of gouges to insert holes in the panel, thereby devising a unique new process. Wherever there are notches in the wood, the white of the paper remains visible during printing. The density of these points of light determines light, shade and form. He ultimately ceases work on a promising new picture to devote himself exclusively to woodcuts for the next ten years.

Gertsch is joined by the printer Nik Hausmann in devising a suitable method for manually transferring the large-scale to monumental woodcuts from panel to paper with the help of magnifying glasses. Although a small edition is printed from the wood block, the variations in colour, amongst other things, make each impression unique. Gertsch produces Natascha I-III and the monumental woodcuts Natascha IV, Dominique and Doris.

First of several journeys to Japan. Together with his wife Maria and Balthasar Burkhard, Gertsch visits Ivano Heizaburo, whose hand-made paper he subsequently uses for his prints. In Kyoto he discovers a shop with a huge selection of colour pigments which are given names such as “water colour” or “flower colour”. Although he has no detailed knowledge of the individual substances, he enthusiastically purchases a selection of the pigments. On later trips he systematically acquires mineral pigments. Natascha IV is printed with the pigments purchased there. It is only later that he discovers and uses the historical pigments of Dr. Georg Kremer in Aichstetten.

In the large-scale woodcuts Rüschegg, Cima del Mar, Pestwurz (Butterbur) and Schwarzwasser (Black Water) Gertsch turns his attention to nature. He often finds motifs in the immediate surroundings of his house in Rüschegg. Rüschegg is exhibited for the first time in 1989 at the Musée Rath in Geneva. Some of the criticism is harsh, his choice of motif being construed as romantic escapism.

The woodcuts are exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York as well as in Washington D.C. and San Jose.

Exhibition of the woodcuts in Bern, Baden-Baden and Nagoya (Japan). Gertsch creates the monumental woodcuts Schwarzwasser II (Black Water II) and Diptychon Schwarzwasser (Black Water Diptych).

In the summer of 1995 Gertsch catches sight of an inconspicuous grass on the edge of his garden. The camera lens opens up a wonderful world of dancing grasses. Moved by the beauty of light, colour and composition he resolves to take up painting again. In the period up to 1999 he makes the paintings Gräser I-IV (Grasses I-IV) [for which he uses only pure mineral pigments that he binds in damar resin], the portrait Silvia I and the woodcuts Acqua Serena and Gräser I (Grasses I).

Awarded the Imperial Ring of the City of Goslar.

Solo exhibition with Silvia I at the Biennale in Venice.

Portrait Silvia II completed.

Monumental woodcuts Das grosse Gras (The Tall Grass) and Maria.

The museum franz gertsch opens in Burgdorf. Close cooperation with the architects Jörg and Sturm ensures the provision of customised windowless rooms for Gertsch’s oeuvre on three levels. At this point the museum collection consists of the following works: Silvia I, Gräser I-IV (Grasses I-IV) and all the woodcuts to date. However, the objective is not to create a “Gertsch mausoleum” but to open the museum for alternating exhibitions by artists from home and abroad.

Patti Smith III is exhibited at the Biennale in Venice.

Completion of the portrait Silvia III, start of work on the monumental woodcuts Pestwurz Ausblick (Butterbur View), Waldweg Ausblick (Forest Path View) and Gräser Ausblick (Grasses View) for the planned room installation Ausblick Franz Gertsch (Franz Gertsch View) in Rehau in Germany.

Major retrospective at the museum franz gertsch in Burgdorf (works up to 1976) and the Kunstmuseum Bern (works from 1977 to 2005). The exhibition is also staged at the Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst in Aachen and the Kunsthalle in Tübingen (2006). Awarded honorary citizenship of Kiel University.

Solo exhibition at the Albertina Museum Vienna and the Museum of Modern Art Ludwig Foundation Vienna. Gertsch is given the freedom of the municipality of Rüschegg.

Opening of REHAU Ausblick Franz Gertsch in Rehau. The permanent exhibition covering 750 sq. m. comprises a total of 15 large-scale woodcuts on three motifs. The themes and colour schemes for these works were devised especially for this room installation in a converted industrial building (owned by the Rehau company).

Four Seasons series with the paintings Herbst 2007/08 (Autumn 2007/08), Sommer (2008/09), (Summer 2008/09), Winter (2009) and Frühling (2010/11) (Spring 2010/11).

Major retrospective exhibition at the Kunsthaus Zürich: Jahreszeiten. Werke von 1983 bis 2011. (Seasons. Works from 1983 to 2011). All the monumental woodcuts and paintings produced since 1983 are on display, including for the first time all four seasons, albeit in four separate rooms. In autumn the entire monumental series is shown for the first time in a single room at the museum franz gertsch. Willy Reber Art Award.

Frühling (Spring) forms the backdrop for the official photograph of the Swiss national government. The Swiss Post Office issues three special stamps with woodcut motifs by Franz Gertsch.

Guadeloupe triptych with Maria (2011/12), Bromelia (2012) and Soufrière (2012/13). The slides used derive from the journey Franz and Maria Gertsch undertook to Guadeloupe in 1985.

The Guadeloupe triptych with the image Soufrière, completed in May, is shown for the first time in its entirety at the museum franz gertsch. The Museum Frieder Burda in Baden-Baden exhibits 30 large paintings and woodcuts, including the Four Seasons series and the Guadeloupe triptych, under the heading Franz Gertsch – Geheimnis Natur (Franz Gertsch – Secret of Nature). Production of the woodcut Saintes Maries de la Mer, which takes up the motif of the 1971 painting Saintes Maries de la Mer II destroyed by fire in Detroit in 2008.

Franz Gertsch retrospective at the Museum Les Abattoirs in Toulouse in France, including the new painting Waldweg (Campiglia Marittima) (2013/14) [Forest Path] (Campiglia Marittima) (2013/14).

Gertsch makes the paintings Pestwurz (Butterbur) and the woodcuts Bromelia, Winter, Maria II and Sommer (Summer).

9 March 2018: ground-breaking ceremony for the underground extension to the museum franz gertsch. Some 300 sq. m. are to be added to the museum to accommodate the permanent exhibition of the Four Seasons by Franz Gertsch. The painting Grosse Pestwurz (Large Butterbur) is made in 2018. Gertsch increasingly renounces realistic colouring, beginning with Gräser V / VI / VII (Grasses V / VI / VII). The red-and-blue colour scheme of Gräser VII (Grasses VII) is a reference to the colour theory of his former teacher, Max von Mühlenen. The exclusive use of pure lapis lazuli as a colour pigment in Gräser VIII (Grasses VIII), Blauer Sommer und Gräser Serenade (Blue Summer and Grasses Serenade) enables him to finally achieve the monochrome colouring he has long sought in his painting.

The extension to the museum franz gertsch with the Four Seasons opens on the occasion of his 89th birthday. Gertsch /Gaugin / Munch – Cut in Wood exhibition in MASI Lugano, in which his monumental woodcuts are contrasted with woodcuts by Gauguin and Munch. The exhibition is curated by Tobia Bezzola and Franz Gertsch, who was invited to prepare an exhibition of his works in the run-up to his 90th birthday.

To mark the artist’s 90th birthday the museum franz gertsch and the Kunstmuseum Lentos in Linz stage an exhibition entitled Die Siebziger (The Seventies) comprising 21 works from the 1970s. The exhibition Luciano Castelli. Reckenbühl, designed as a thematic complement, is on display in both museums. Similarly, the Graphische Sammlung ETH Zürich presents looking back, a collection of drawings and woodcuts from the 1940s and 1950s, as a homage to Gertsch on his 90th birthday.

After Meer II (Sea II), for which Gertsch continues to use lapis lazuli as the sole colouring pigment, he extends the palette in Cima del Mar by including a pigment made from Rüschegg earth. This is specially prepared for him by Dr. Georg Kremer after the latter visits the artist in his studio. Schwarzwasser (Black Water), completed on 14 September, is painted exclusively using this special earth pigment. In mid-September Franz Gertsch begins work on another large Gräser (Grasses) image, for which he again plans to make exclusive use of the Rüschegg earth pigment. It remains unfinished. Franz Gertsch dies in Riggisberg Hospital on 21 December at the age of 92.