Research project and book publication

As part of a three-year art technological research project at the Swiss Institute of Art Research (SIK-ISEA) in Zurich, Emmenegger's painting technique notebook was subjected to scientific and scholarly investigation. The artist's diaries and individual other sources were also included in the evaluation; in addition, selected paintings from the period between 1901 and 1905 were technologically examined and compared with the diary and notebook entries relating to them. In 2022 the findings obtained in this process were published in the book Hans Emmenegger. "Maltechnik-Notizbuch" und Werkprozess 1901–1905 (series "KUNSTmaterial", volume 6).

The book is divided into four parts. Part I presents the most important source of the project, the painting technique notebook, provides an overview of its contents, explains the categories Emmenegger himself used for his works, and examines the reasons that led him to tackle a logbook in February 1901 but abandon it four and a half years later.

Part II is essentially a summary of all the insights into Emmenegger's complex work process gained during the project. This part describes how he regularly went on painting trips from his residence on the Herdschwand (LU) in order to paint outdoors, describes his procedure in the search for subjects and in the creation of studies, shows against which adversities he fought and with what means, and explains his handling of the studies that he brought home from his travels. Part II also provides a summary overview of Emmenegger's painting process and materials.

Part III is the most comprehensive section. Each of its 18 chapters describes a particular period in Emmenegger's life and work between 1901 and 1905. The basis for this part is primarily his diaries.
The basis for Part IV is formed by Emmenegger's painting technique notebook and the results of technological examinations of paintings. This part delves deeply into the painting-technical matter. It is devoted to the genesis of the works of the eight paintings examined as well as three series of technical experiments carried out and documented by the artist. Each of the eleven chapters begins with a transcription of Emmenegger's entries in the notebook for that particular work or series of experiments and ends with a detailed commentary.

Finally, the appendix contains the interpretations of the material analyses carried out on the eight paintings and on some of the test areas of Emmenegger's paint experiments that have survived to the present day, and indicates which paint tubes from the Mussini range of the time the painter must have used. In addition, the appendix includes a glossary of the methods and equipment used in the structural examinations of the paintings and the material analyses.