Langmatt Museum
The Langmatt Museum is an art museum in Baden in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland . Located in a turn-of-the-century factory owner's villa, it is known for its extensive collection of French Impressionist paintings .
history
Around 1900 Sidney Brown and his wife Jenny, who came from the Sulzer family of manufacturers in Winterthur , commissioned the architects Karl Moser and Robert Curjel to build a house in Baden. Sidney Brown worked as a technical manager at the nearby Brown, Boveri & Cie. which his brother Charles founded together with Walter Boveri in 1891. The couple acquired Eugène Boudin's picture washerwomen on their honeymoon in Paris in 1896, making them one of the first collectors in Switzerland to collect modern French painting.
In the next few years her collection focused initially on painters from the Munich School such as Ludwig von Herterich , Leo Putz and Franz von Stuck . In 1906 a gallery was added to the house for these, some of them large-format, pictures. Through the friendly relationship with the Winterthur painter Carl Montag , who lives in Paris, the Browns' interest turned to modern French painters. The works of the German artists were sold and the construction of the Impressionist collection began. The Browns also acquired valuable furniture, china, clocks, silver, and books.
The house was not planned as a museum. Only a few visitors had the opportunity to see the picture collection. After a painting by Daumier on loan from the Browns was stolen at an exhibition in Paris in April 1938, they rarely loaned pictures, so that many works remained hidden from the general public for decades. After the death of her son John A. Brown in 1987, the villa and its collections were transferred to a foundation (founded in 1988) and have been open as a museum since 1990.
collection
From 1908 the couple began to regularly acquire paintings by the French Impressionists in Paris . In just a few years, they brought together groups of works by Eugène Boudin , Camille Corot , Edgar Degas , Paul Cézanne and Camille Pissarro . The collector couple was able to acquire 22 paintings from Pierre-Auguste Renoir alone . There were also works by Pierre Bonnard , Mary Cassatt , Gustave Courbet , Henri Fantin-Latour , Paul Gauguin , Claude Monet , Odilon Redon , Alfred Sisley and Vincent van Gogh . From 1919 individual works by Fragonard and Watteau also came into the collection.
In addition to an art museum, Langmatt is also a residential museum. The original furnishings of the house have largely been preserved, so that an example of bourgeois living culture from the first half of the 20th century can be seen in the Langmatt Museum.
Exhibited works
(Selection)
Mary Cassatt: L'Enfant bleu
Eugène Boudin: Laveuses au bord de la Touques
Paul Cézanne: View of L'Estaque
Camille Corot: Ariccia, Palazzo Chigi
Gustave Courbet: Sitting Dog on Cushions
Edgar Degas: Female reclining nude on carpet
Paul Gauguin: Still Life with Fruit Peel and Lemons
Claude Monet: La Débâcle de la Seine
literature
- Florens Deuchler: The French Impressionists and their predecessors. Catalog. Langmatt Foundation, Baden 1990, ISBN 3-85545-044-7 .
- Eva-Maria Preiswerk-Lösel (ed.): A house for the impressionists - The Langmatt Museum. Complete catalog. Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern-Ruit 2001, ISBN 3-7757-1017-5 .
- Florens Deuchler: Langmatt Sidney and Jenny Brown Foundation, Baden AG. Brief guide through the painting collection. (Swiss Art Guide, No. 464). Ed. Society for Swiss Art History GSK. Bern 1990, ISBN 978-3-85782-464-7 .
- Florens Deuchler: Langmatt Sidney and Jenny Brown Foundation, Baden AG Karl Mosers Bau. Architecture and equipment. (Swiss Art Guide, No. 483). Ed. Society for Swiss Art History GSK. Bern 1991, ISBN 978-3-85782-483-8 .
Web links
- Literature from and about Museum Langmatt in the catalog of the German National Library
- Official website
- Villa Langmatt in the inventory of the canton of Aargau
Footnotes
Coordinates: 47 ° 28 ′ 52 " N , 8 ° 18 ′ 28" E ; CH1903: 665511 / 259290