Louis Soutter (1871-1942) was a prolific artist whose work, at the turn of two centuries, is a forerunner of modernity and part of the wider picture of the history of forms. He died in 1942 in a hospice in Ballaigues (Switzerland), leaving a remarkable body of work whose profound modernity has only recently come to light. The interest shown in his work by such important figures as Roberto Matta (1911-2002), and the impact it would have on the art of Arnulf Rainer (1929), Julian Schnabel (1951), A.R. Penck (1939) and Elmar Trenkwalder (1959), confirm him as an artist of the twentieth century whose work has its place in reflections by contemporary artists. As Arnulf Rainer - who since the early 1960s has studied Soutter’s work and acquired several paintings - reminds us: "It is clear today that Louis Soutter was not a marginal painter but a pioneer for my generation. This is why he was never accepted until today and why he belongs to our modern culture." (Conversation between Fridhelm Mennekes and Arnulf Rainer in the catalogue for Les Doigts Peignent, Arnulf Rainer, Louis Soutter at the Musée Cantonal in Lausanne, 1986).