Leonhard Steiner (1836 - 1920)

Leonhard Steiner

Leonhard Steiner was a Swiss industrialist, artist, and playwright.

Leonhard Steiner was the son of a wealthy silk manufacturer and, having artistic and musical inclinations, was forced to take over his father's business. In the mid-1870s, among other duties, he was president of the Zurich Stock Exchange and served as president of the Exchange Association, but his activities in this field failed.

Steiner was forty-six years old when he decided to devote himself fully to painting and achieved a certain skill. He even managed to feed his family of ten through this labor. He painted high-altitude landscapes, which were very popular. Steiner also created several comedies, edited a Swiss-German dictionary and was an expert in the dialect of the city of Zurich. His work was also closely linked to the musical life of the city, as he was the longtime president of the men's choir. To this day, Steiner remains a highly respected man in Zurich precisely because of his work in the arts.