Information concerning Gottfried Aeschlimann is scarce. A factory worker and husband, he was committed to Waldau psychiatric asylum* in 1908, where he remained until his death in 1930.

The two drawings attributed to him are executed in graphite. They depict scenes from everyday life, whether rural – two shepherds with their goats, a flower in their mouths – or bourgeois – figures in formal dress, with pocket watches and hats. Jean Dubuffet discovered the drawings during his visit to Waldau cantonal asylum* in 1945.