He was the second of four children born to , a church and portrait painter, and his wife Josefa-Klara. In 1839, they moved from Brig to Sion and his mother died in 1842. He received his first drawing lessons from his father. From 1851 to 1853, he studied with his uncle, Heinrich Kaiser, who was also a church and portrait painter. His father was displeased with his interest in landscape painting and, as he had also expressed an interest in science during his secondary education, it was suggested that he pursue that course, rather than art. However, he came in contact with the
Nazarene painters
Paul von Deschwanden and Theodor von Deschwanden (1826–1861) and, on the basis of their advice, enrolled at the
Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. He was there from 1853 to 1856. His instructors included
Heinrich Mücke,
Karl Ferdinand Sohn,
Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow and
Theodor Hildebrandt. After 1860, he worked in the studios of
Rudolf Jordan, who introduced him to
genre painting with folk life motifs. In 1862, he had his first major success when one of his works was purchased by Kaiser
Wilhelm I at an exhibition in Brussels. This enabled him to open his own studio in
Düsseldorf. He was only there for a year, however, when his father's worsening health forced him to return home and assist with the creation of several
altarpieces. After returning to Düsseldorf, he fell ill himself and decided to go back to Sion permanently. In the following years, he not only painted, but also wrote numerous works on biology, geology, archaeology and folklore. Many of these writings were published in the yearbooks of the
Schweizer Alpen-Club, of which he was a member. In 1874, he stayed at a spa in
Albisbrunn where he met and married Caroline Nördlinger, the daughter of an engineer from
Tübingen. They had five children, including the mathematician and physicist,
Walther Ritz. He was later involved in the creation of the
Swiss National Museum and was a member of several groups devoted to historical preservation. An unspecified illness began to afflict him in 1889 and it led to his death in 1894. ==References==