When you stroll through the Alpine town of Interlaken it is hard to not notice the small but remarkable hill kleine Rugen right next to the town centre and then metion that there hidden within its surprising paths lies the legacy of celebrated artist clara von rappard. While Interlaken is famous today for adrenaline sports and mountain excursions, in the Belle Époque, it was a hub of European high society and artistic inspiration. At the center of this world was Clara von Rappard (1857–1912), a woman whose life was inextricably linked to the development of Interlaken as a world-class travel destination.
Conrad von Rappard: Interlaken Tourism & Whey Bathing Visionary
To understand Clara, and how she ended up becoming celebrated nature plein-air artist you have to start with her father, Conrad von Rappard. A German lawyer and revolutionary who fled to Switzerland after the political upheavals of 1848, Conrad was not a man to sit idle. He became a pioneer of Bernese Oberland tourism.
After successfully building the legendary Grandhotel Giessbach on Lake Brienz, Conrad von Rappard converted the Pension Jungfrau-Blick, which had opened in 1839, into the first grand hotel & health resort in Matten in 1863. This ‘Kurhaus Jungfrau’ became the center of the in that time super-popular whey baths and milk culture (basically a milk & cheese Spa) treatments and its opening transformed the region into a playground for the elite.
Believe it or not, back then, whey wasn’t just leftover waste—it was liquid gold! People totally swore by its healing powers. Think of it as the old-school cure-all for just about everything. Sore joints from rheumatism? Nasty skin issues? Just hop in a whey bath! Folks from all walks of life flocked to Swiss spa towns to soak in the warm, milky goodness and feel brand new and Interlaken was at the center of this.
Whey and mineral water cures combined with exercise and fresh air in ideal conjunction with comfortable accommodation in close proximity to the main town—an offer that even high-ranking personalities could not resist. The fashionable whey cures promised relief for overweight, liver, gall bladder, intestinal and kidney ailments, as well as skin diseases and gout.
It was in this environment of enterprise and natural beauty that Clara was raised. She grew up in the “Villa Rugen,” a home that was less a private residence and more a cultural salon adjacent to the cheese bathing and whey spa of her Dad’s grand hotel.
The Rundweg: Interlaken’s “Mountain Boulevard”
One of Conrad’s most lasting contributions—which served as Clara Rappard’s backyard and studio—was the creation of the Rugen Rundweg (Rugen Boulevard), a circular path that looped around the perimeter of the Kleine Rugen mountain.
Developed around 1858 in collaboration with the head forester Adolf von Greyerz, this wasn’t just a hiking trail; it was designed as a “mountain boulevard.” It was the place to be seen. The path was manicured and engineered to offer dramatic vistas of the lakes and the Jungfrau massif. It even featured a “dry waterfall” with a wooden bridge, a romantic folly designed specifically for guests to pose for souvenir photographs.
For the guests of the Hotel Jungfraublick – which is still exist but under the name Hotel Regina now – walking this boulevard was an essential part of the “whey bathing” and “milk spa” treatments. For Clara, it became her open-air studio.
A Circle of Influential Guests
Clara Rappard’s household and their associated hotels were magnets for the intellectual and aristocratic elite of the 19th century. The guest lists read like a Who’s Who of the era: royalty, diplomats, and celebrated artists flocked to Interlaken to breathe the mountain air. Among the elite guests were Elisabeth of Prussia, Hermann von Helmholtz, Clara Schumann, Heinrich Gerhardt, the Siemens family, General von Winterfeld, the crown prince couple Friedrich, Adolf Menzel, Prince Alexander, Carl Gussow, the couple Hermann Grimm, the family of Carl Hilty, and their political like-minded companions.
Clara was not just an observer of this glittering world; she captured it. Her portraits, such as Miss Hardy on the Rose Terrace or the Hilty Sisters in Rugenpark, offer a glimpse into the leisurely, opulent lifestyle of Interlaken’s golden age. Her father’s connections to figures like Clara Schumann and Alexander von Humboldt ensured that young Clara was constantly surrounded by brilliance, which fueled her own artistic ambitions.
Clara von Rappard: Interlaken’s Celebrated Pleinair Painting Pioneer
Despite the high society surrounding her, Clara’s true muse was the raw nature of the Bernese Oberland. She was a Pleinair painter (outdoor painter) long before it was common for women to be seen dragging easels up mountain paths.
She held a deep fascination for the Jungfrau. She painted the mountain repeatedly, capturing its changing moods, light, and formidable presence. Her most famous work, Jungfrau im Nebel (Jungfrau in the Fog, c. 1888), is a masterpiece of atmosphere, showing the mountain not just as a geological structure, but as a mystical, almost breathing entity.
While the tourists came to conquer the peaks or gaze at them from hotel terraces, Clara sought to understand them through her brush.
To see some of her more famous works you can drive or take a Brienzersee cruise to the Grandhotel Giessbach. There in its salon, paintings by Clara von Rappard from the collection of the Bern Art Museum are permanently exhibited, including the two famous works: “Jungfrau im Nebel” and the self-portrait.
“The artistic task I most like to solve is always the most faithful expression of an instantaneous sensation that suddenly, like a flash, presents itself to me as a complete image, crystal clear, so that one only needs to capture it”
-Clara von Rappard-
Rediscovering Clara Rappard’s Jungfrau Legacy
Today, you can still experience the “Mountain Boulevard” that shaped Clara’s life. The Rundweg on the Kleiner Rugen has been revitalized, with information panels detailing the history of the von Rappard family.
As you walk the path, looking out over the Bödeli (the total flat area between the lake of Thun and the lake of Brienz) toward the Jungfrau, you are seeing the same view that captivated Clara over a century ago. She remains Interlaken’s “Painter of the Light,” a woman who turned the local landscape into world-class art.