A Ballad with Marie Scheppler

The innovations brought by J.F. Oberlin to the field of education remained fully relevant for a very long time in Ban de la Roche. We know the importance the pastor placed on drawing. In his educational approach, the act of drawing was not simply a means to the end of making a drawing, but rather “a real gift to interior enrichment”.

The life and work of Marie Scheppler (1896-1980) may bear witness to this heritage, which was, nonetheless, upheld proudly by the residents of Ban de la Roche for decades. Her watercolours and poems all evoke this landscape. And she did not merely observe this landscape; she sought to enter into it in order to better appreciate it. This woman dared to pursue her passion wholeheartedly, to give herself the freedom to be a painter, a poet, a composer and a farmer all at once, without worrying about the condescension with which her work or her lifestyle was regarded.