Otto Vautier the Elder is best known for his lovely paintings of women. However, under the influence of his painter friend Ernest Biéler, he also became a member of the "École de Savièse", a loose grouping of painters who had settled or worked temporarily in the small Valais village.

The focus for some was landscape painting, for others the depiction of peasant life and folklore.

Otto Vautier was a German painter born in Düsseldorf in 1863. He was trained at the Munich Academy by Fritz Uhde and later settled in Geneva, Switzerland in 1906. Vautier became known for his female portraits and nudes, but his early work was effectively painted. He passed away in Geneva in 1919.