Reaching out to the World From an Attic Studio in Lakeville

Artist Etienne Delessert grew up in Switzerland but has lived and worked in Lakeville, Conn., since 1985. 

He first came to the area in 1968, visiting friends in the Northwest Corner on vacations. He appreciated how easy the trip was by train to this part of the world from his home in New York City.

“Lakeville was close enough to New York that in the morning we could take the car and have two, three appointments in the city and then come back at night.” 

He and his wife, artist Rita  Marshall, were also attracted by the beauty of the area, and the excellent schools. Their son attended Salisbury Central School and The Hotchkiss School.

Delessert’s work has international reach. He has done portraits, landscapes and many political cartoons and illustrations. In 2017, he created the foundation “Les Maitres de l’Imaginaire” in Switzerland, “to explain and promote the art of graphic drawing.”

The foundation has put on many shows of graphic art in France, Italy and, most recently, Beijing, China, at the Tsinghua University Art Museum. The show “Image of the West” closed after six months, on May 5, 2021.

“From this porch in Lakeville you can do a lot,” Delessert said. “You can be living in a tiny place where you walk calmly without being disturbed, and you choose your friends, and you vote for public housing.”

Delessert’s workspace is on the very top floor of a Victorian-style house in the center of the village. Artwork and other important artifacts hang on the walls that frame the path up the stairs.

“It’s a big mess, but it’s my studio,” the artist said of his workroom. Delessert’s art is everywhere, leaning on walls, perched on an easel, rolled up in tubes. There are posters, books, a lineup of stuffed animals and several small sculptures.

There’s one desk with a computer and another with art materials, parallel to large glass doors that invite in  the sunlight. Delessert will sometimes clear the floor so he can work in a different position. Sometimes he works outside.

One might wonder how an artist with such international reach can work in such a small space in a little, rural town. 

Curiously, the isolation and privacy are what the artist loves.

“It’s wonderful to be in a place where basically nobody knows you. I have shows all over the world, but people know my wife and I here for walking the dog. We are the first ones to do it, in any kind of weather.”

Perhaps it is the peace and quiet of his surroundings that allow Delessert to work quickly and under great stress when he has assignments to do illustrations for breaking news stories.

“I’ve become known for doing impossible tasks,”he said. 

The influx of residents to this area due to the pandemic has demonstrated, Delessert said, that others had realized the magic of this part of the world. “We never saw so many dogs. We’re not the only ones anymore.”

Books that Etienne Delessert recommends

“By recommending three books, I suppose it is somehow expected that my choices will say something about who I am, 

“So, I choose three of my own books, which have traveled from France to Iran to China.”

• “Night Circus,” published by Creative Editions

“The story starts one evening on Route 44, as I saw a little circus with many odd characters passing slowly before me, and going …?”

• “It,” published by Creative Editions

“I never tell any of my dreams in my books. But waking up one morning I saw a strange creature, floating like a brown furry dot in a pale yellow sky. I followed it. Friend or foe?”

• “Fuzzy, Furry Hat,” published by Creative Editions  

“I really believe that the Noah’s Ark journey was a perfectly laic story — and that a black bear saved the world.”

Etienne Delessert is best known for his picture books, but he also creates expressive portraits on posters and canvasses, which line the floors, shelves, and tables of his studio. Photo by Anabelle Baum

Swiss-born artist Etienne Delessert spends his days translating his passions, nightmares and political views into books, paintings, and media of all kinds, in a studio in the attic of his Lakeville, Conn., home. Photo by Anabelle Baum

Swiss-born artist Etienne Delessert spends his days translating his passions, nightmares and political views into books, paintings, and media of all kinds, in a studio in the attic of his Lakeville, Conn., home. Photo by Anabelle Baum

Etienne Delessert is best known for his picture books, but he also creates expressive portraits on posters and canvasses, which line the floors, shelves, and tables of his studio. Photo by Anabelle Baum