Exhibition Treasures from the Petit Palais in Geneva at the Fondation de l'Hermitage
The Fondation de l'Hermitage in Lausanne is showing paintings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They come from an original private collection based in Geneva. On display are well-known and lesser-known artists - and above all female artists.
22.01.2025, 18:51
SDA
The Tunisian-born industrialist and collector Oscar Ghez (1905-1998) has been amassing works of art by great masters such as Édouard Manet and Auguste Renoir since the 1950s. He also included lesser-known painters such as Gustave Caillebotte, Charles Angrand and Maximilien Luce in his collection.
However, he showed himself to be a non-conformist in particular by including female artists in his collection who were not yet recognized at the time: Marie Bracquemond, Suzanne Valadon, María Blanchard, Nathalie Kraemer, Jeanne Hébuterne and Tamara de Lempicka. Their artistic activities have only gradually been discovered since then.
This collection was made accessible to the public from 1968 in the Petit Palais, a private house on the edge of Geneva's old town. In 2000, two years after the collector's death, the institution was closed to the public. Since then, the works have only been on display at special exhibitions or on collection tours outside Switzerland.
The Fondation de l'Hermitage in Lausanne now offers the opportunity to rediscover or rediscover 136 masterpieces from this collection. In total, Oscar Ghez's collection comprises several thousand paintings, Sylvie Wuhrmann, Director of the Fondation de l'Hermitage, told the media on Wednesday. The exhibition is organized according to the major artistic movements.
Steinlen at the center
Almost like "an exhibition within an exhibition", the Hermitage is focusing on Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen from Lausanne: "Oscar Ghez had developed a passion for this artist and bought no fewer than 630 paintings, engravings and drawings by him," said Wuhrmann.
The foundation is showing 47 works dedicated to the artist's favorite themes. Steinlen lived in Montmartre in Paris from 1881. He created the poster "La Tournée du Chat Noir", which he designed for the Chat Noir cabaret in Montmartre.
Although Steinlen's reputation was based on the cat motif, social themes were particularly close to his heart. His drawings, prints and paintings show the hard life of workers and the miserable conditions of prostitutes and vagrants of his time. The pacifist Steinlen also denounced the horrors of the First World War.
The exhibition "Art Treasures from Geneva's Petit Palais" can be seen at the Fondation de l'Hermitage in Lausanne from January 24 to June 1.
