Benjamin Vautier, a Swiss painter, born in Geneva in 1830. He studied in Diisseldorf, and became known by admirable genre pictures relating to the domestic life of Switzerland and Swabia. Between 1858 and 1864 he exhibited "Devout Singers in a Church," "A Party embarking on a Rhine Steamer," "A Solitary Spinning Woman," "A Wife's Surprise on meeting her Husband in a Tavern on her way from Church," "A Sunday Afternoon in Swabia," and " Cats in a Criminal Case," one of his masterpieces. His " Courtier and Peasants in Wurtemberg" (1865) appeared among his pictures at the Paris exhibition of 1867, where he received a medal. His subsequent productions comprise " The Antiquary among the Peasantry," "The Wake, or Feast after a Burial, in the Bernese Highlands" (1866), " The First Dancing Lesson in a Village of the Black Forest" (1868), "The Interrupted Quarrel" (1869), "Drinking the Bride's Health," "A Public Dinner," and "A Village Funeral" (1871). He has made designs for an episode of Immermann's M'unchhausen.