The Berry Museum is located in the century-old Villa Arona in the heart of St. Moritz. It is dedicated to Peter Robert Berry (1864-1942), who worked as a spa doctor and soon decided to take up painting. In 40 years he produced numerous oil paintings, pastels and drawings. Like Giovanni Segantini, Berry cultivated a divisionist style, and his subjects were mostly taken from the magnificent Engadine mountain landscape. He was also in lively exchange with his friend Giovanni Giacometti.
Peter Robert Berry II
(1864 - 1942)
was born into a Swiss family of doctors. His father already practised as a spa doctor in St. Moritz, and his son followed in his footsteps, but from 1900 onwards he dedicated himself to painting. After studies in Paris at the Académie Julien and in Munich at the school of Heinrich Knirr he returned to the Engadine and painted preferably in the open air, on the Julier or on the Bernina Pass.
Paintings and drawings
The work of
Peter Robert Berry II
Contact & Visit
Via Arona 32, 7500 St. Moritz
Tel. +41 81 833 30 18
info@berrymuseum.com
Summer season
17. June to October 18, 2024
Monday to Friday, 2 - 6 p.m.
Admission incl. audio guide CHF 15.00
Children up to 12 years free of charge
The Berry family: Doctors in the Engadine
The artist's father, Dr. med. Peter Robert Berry I, moved from Chur to the Engadine and, along with Dr. Brügger, was one of the first St. Moritz spa doctors to work in the new Kurhaus, which opened in 1864 and was designed for a sophisticated clientele. After several years in England and Smyrna as a lieutenant colonel in the British Swiss Legion, he was confident in dealing with Englishmen and thus the key person for the success of his brother-in-law Johannes Badrutt-Berry.
The painter's son and grandson also worked as doctors in the Engadine. Peter Robert Berry IV, for example, set up a local ambulance service as part of the Berry Clinic. He then founded the Berry Museum, which today preserves the memory of his ancestors.
The Berry Museum at Villa Arona, St. Moritz
Villa Arona was built in 1905 by order of Dr. med. dent. Johann Berry (1867-1947), a brother of the painter. The house served as a medical practice for three generations of the Berry family until it was converted into a museum in 2004.
Housed on the first floor of Villa Arona, the artist's paintings now hang in a stylish ambience. The history of the rooms reflects, as it were, the change that Berry himself made from doctor to artist, and bears witness to the local history of St. Moritz.
Let's play: Find paintings by Peter Robert Berry in today's Engadine landscape
