Unhappy with the operation of their inn, J.'s parents had to leave it and the whole family then moved to the Souboz mill. At the age of six, J. was placed with parents in the Montagne de Moutier where he attended school. It is from this time already that his beginnings in painting date. The following year, he returned to his parents who encouraged this budding vocation. J. took drawing lessons at the Bellelay boarding school, at the Moutier school and in Neuchâtel, with Professor Jean Preudhomme. These studies are often interrupted by his fragile health. He then left to join his brother in Basel where he took watercolor lessons with Jérôme Holzach (1733-1793) and met the painter Peter Birmann (1758-1844), a meeting that had a great impact on his career. He then followed the courses of the painters Wocher, in Basel, Jean-Baptiste Stuntz (1753-1836), in Arlesheim, and Wuest, in Zurich. After the ruin of his parents, J. must return to Basle where he is agregated as a member of the university. There he met Chrétien de Méchel, engraver and print dealer, with whom he worked for several years. During his stay in Basel, he made several trips to the Bernese Oberland.

In 1809 or 1810, he left Basel for Courrendlin. 

Many paintings representing Jura landscapes date from this period.

In 1812, he was appointed professor of drawing at the College of Delémont, then decided to settle in Bern, not finding, in Delémont, a sufficient clientele to sell his watercolors. However, he continued to return regularly to the jura to paint his landscapes there. 

In 1823, he was appointed professor of drawing at the Academy of Bern.

At the end of 1828, following the grief caused to him by the death of his daughter at the age of five, J. and his wife (Marie-Catherine, née Mouillet) and his sister-in-law, Catherine Mouillet ( 1802-1885), who had come to settle with them, decided on a trip to Italy before settling in Nice where J. opened a workshop. His health recovered and his financial situation strengthened when the events of July 1830 occurred which decided the couple to leave Nice for Turin. After a stay in Rome (1835-1848), he returned to Turin.

Finally, in 1855, financial difficulties forced him to return to the country. Twenty-seven years after leaving her, J. and his wife moved back to Bern. 

[Source: DIJU - jura dictionary - Emma Chatelain, 1/11/2005]

Bibliography

Gustave Amweg: The Arts in the Bernese jura and in Bienne, volume 1, Porrentruy, 1937, pp. 322-344 / 461 / 498

Biographical Dictionary of Swiss Art AK, Zurich and Lausanne, 1998, p. 553