Adolph Menzel

Karl Stauffer, known as Karl Stauffer-Bern was a Swiss painter, etcher and sculptor. In the late 1880s, Stauffer-Bern had a romantic affair with Lydia Welti-Escher, but her husband used his political influence to separate them and to place Welti-Escher in an insane asylum. A despondent Stauffer-Bern reacted with a suicide attempt which left him permanently injured. In January 1891, he committed suicide with an overdose of chloral hydrate.