The New International Encyclopædia/Töpffer, Rodolphe

TÖPFFER, tẽpf′ẽr, Rodolphe (1799-1846). A Swiss novelist and draughtsman, born in Geneva, son of the landscape and genre painter Adam Töpffer (1766-1847), under whose instruction he devoted himself to art. His eyesight failing, be took up teaching, in 1825, established a boarding school, and in 1832 became professor of æsthetics at the Academy of Geneva. His novel Le presbytère (1839) attracted universal attention. The Nouvelles genevoises (1838), Nouvelles et mélanges (1840), La bibliothèque de mon oncle (1843), and Rose et Gertrude (1845) are hardly less delightful than the humorous sketches of travel Voyages en zigzag (1848) and Nouveaux voyages en zigzag (1853), illustrated by himself. A little archaic in style, his work is simple, artistic, sound, and witty, with a childlike fancy and sentiment. Among his best productions are the seven little novels in pictures: Mr. Jabot, Mr. Crepin, Mr. Pencil, Le docteur Festus, Histoire d'Albert, Les amours de Mr. Vieux Bois, and Mr. Cryptogame, published together in Collection des histoires en estampes (Geneva, 1846-47). For his biography consult Relave (Paris, 1886); Blondel and Mirabaud (ib., 1887); and Glöckner (Zerbst, 1891).