Jean Huber

Jean Huber (13 February 1721 in Geneva – 1786 in Lausanne) was a Swiss painter and silhouettiste.

Jean Huber was the son of Jacob Huber, a member of the "Two-Hundreds" council, and of Catherine Vasserot de Vincy. The family came from Schaffhausen originally and was admitted into the Geneva bourgeoisie in 1654.

In 1738 Jean Huber entered the Hessel-Cassel military service in Prince Frederick's Grenadier regiment, then in 1741 he transferred to the Piedmont service where he fought with the rank of captain during the war of the Austrian Succession.

In 1747 he married Marie-Louise Alléon-Guainieret. There were two sons: François Huber (1750–1831), the celebrated author of a work on bees, and Jean-Daniel, paysagiste and amateur engraver, and also one daughter named Madelaine.

In 1752 Huber was made a member of the "Two-Hundreds" council.

Jean Huber died in Lausanne in 1786.

Huber started painting without having had any training. He was a talented observer, and his first works were of horses and scenes of hunting, of birds in particular. In 1783 he published in the "Mercure de France" a "Note on the Way of Steering Balloons, based on the Flight of Birds of Prey", then in 1784, "Observations on the Flight of Birds of Prey" (Geneva 1784) with 7 plates designed by him. He was working on a "History of Birds of Prey" when he died.

Huber also had talents as a caricaturist which he used on a number of occasions, and particularly against Liotard. He visited Voltaire at "Les Delices" in 1756 and became part of the Ferney set. He painted numerous pictures representing Philosophy, and dedicated a collection of his portraits to Catherine II of Russia.

He was with Voltaire for twenty years and was given the nickname of Huber-Voltaire. Voltaire wrote in 1772 to Madame du Deffand: "Since you have seen Monsieur Huber, he will do your portrait; he will do it in pastel, in oils, or in mezzotint. With scissors he will make a cutout sketch of you as a complete caricature. This is the way he ridiculed me from one end of Europe to the other."

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