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workshops mentality. The workshops owner recognised
that the artists and their diversity could have a great po-
tential to boost the workshop in the trade in French-
speaking Switzerland and beyond. Thanks to its ability to
use the strengths of their artists, Kirsch & Fleckner be-
came one of the most important workshops in Switzer-
land. Initially considered as anonymous employees, art-
ists were later granted the status of valuable collaborators
whose names should be proudly displayed. The represen-
tatives of the new generation, such as Castella and Broil-
let, asked for better visibility through their signatures on
the stained-glass windows and also asked, in addition to
their painting career, for artistic recognition in the field of
stained glass.

SUMMARY
Valérie Sauterel, Camille Noverraz
THE FUNCTIONING AND DEVEEOPMENT
OF KIRSCH & FLECKNER’S WORKSHOP
IN FRIBOURG DURING THE FIRST HALF
OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Keywords: workshop, artist, stained-glass windows, car-
toon, church
The detailed study we have been carrying out since 2015
on the graphic background of the Fribourg workshop
Kirsch and Fleckner, comprising more than 1700 works
(cardboard boxes and models), has enabled us not only to
understand its functioning but also its development dur-
ing its first years of activity.
Opened in 1894, the workshop was granted the follow-
ing year the mandate to produce Józef Mehoffer s stained
glass windows at Saint-Nicolas Cathedral in Fribourg.
Winning a gold medal with one of its glass windows at the
1900 Paris Universal Exhibition was a great opportunity
which enabled the workshop to win many contracts not
only in the canton but far beyond.
While Karl Fleckner was in charge of the adminis-
tration, Vinzenz Kirsch, who had a solid background as
a glassmaker and was a talented draftsman, managed the
artistic part. During the first few years, he created sev-
eral glass cycles, but then, based on his experience with
Mehoffer, he preferred to call on young artists from the
region who were open to artistic innovation. At the begin-
ning of the twentieth century, the workshop began a suc-
cessful collaboration with four of them: Raymond Bu-
chs, Fortuné Bovard, Jean-Edward de Castella and Henri
Broillet. Usually the workshop would obtain the requests
and propose the projects to the artists. Their talent and
artistic personality would not only forge the workshops
reputation, but also allowed it to develop a very efficient
way of working to respond to many requests.