Early Life, Family and Training Johann Grimm enters the historical record on 15 September 1675 in Bern, Switzerland. He is born into a family of religious standing, the son of the pastor Johann Grimm and Barbara Freudenreich. While his father’s vocation involves the pulpit and the schoolroom, the boy's own path diverges toward the visual arts. His formative years are spent in the Simmental, a landscape that shapes his early environment before he moves toward the urban center of Bern. The transition from the Simmental to the formal training of the city marks a decisive shift in his developmen…