Edmond Henri Zeiger de Baugy was also known as Edmond Henry Zeiger of Baugy. Zeiger later changed his name to Zeiger-Viallet by adding his wife's name. He was a painter, designer and architect who had a personal preference for oil painting in a classical style. His grandfather, Célestin Zeiger-Hugonnet, was friends with Gustave Courbet. In Zeiger's later years, however, his work changed fundamentally through a chance friendship with the much younger artist colleague Jean-Michel Folon. The prolific and frequently commissioned artist was in great demand during his lifetime. He was never forced to compromise by mass-producing works solely for public sale. Edmond Henry Zeiger von Baugy studied art, architecture and literature at the Académie de Vevey and the École des Beaux-arts in Geneva. Eventually, he decided to devote himself exclusively to painting. In 1919-1920, he worked and exhibited in Rome and in 1921 in Paris. He was the most important collaborator of Emmanuel Bénézit and his wife in producing the first edition of the Bénézit Artists' Lexicon, the definitive reference work for the art world. Among his other publications is an important scientific study on the origins of pure landscape painting in France.