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Aloïse Corbaz finished school at eighteen and trained to become a dressmaker. In 1911 she travelled to Germany where she was engaged as a governess to the children of Kaiser William II's chaplain. She developed a violent passion for the Kaiser but returned to Switzerland at the outbreak of the war in 1914. This return home had disastrous effects on Corbaz's health. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of thirty-two and was treated at the Cery psychiatric hospital near Lausanne. Around 1920, Corbaz began to draw in secret, and from 1941 she experienced a burst of creativity which led to her covering rolls of large sheets of paper with paintings. The French artist Jean Dubuffet was particularly impressed by her work.

Palais Rumine undated
Musgrave Kinley Outsider Collection
Crayon and watercolour on paper
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