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Sammlung Rosengart
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Title: Mountain Village [Autumunal] / Village de montagne [automnal] /Bergdorf [herbstlich], 1934, 209 (U 9)
Artist: Paul Klee (Swiss 1879-1940)
Medium: Oil on primed canvas on plywood / Öl auf grundierter Leinwand, auf Sperrholz
Dimensions: 71.5 x 54.4 cm
Image Courtesy: Rosengart Collection, Lucerne /
Collection Rosengart, Lucerne / Sammlung Rosengart, Luzern
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One of the finest art galleries is located in Lucerne, Switzerland home to an outstanding
collection of classic modernist works by an impressive list of artists Picasso, Klee, Cezanne, Matisse and Miro to name
a few. Elegant in design it was created for art lovers
by fellow aficionado Angela Rosengart.
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It all began with her father, Siegfried's, collection.
Angela explains,
"My father was an art dealer and I'm an art dealer also, in
fact I joined him when I was sixteen. He always said, that
the business of art dealing makes sense only if you do it with your whole heart. We picked the pictures for our clients
as though it would be for our own collection. It was never just to do business, it was because we really loved art. Sometimes
it's a little bit dangerous that you fall in love with something that you picked or you can't decide to give it away anymore. It always
happened that we put aside one picture that we really could not part with. We were never inclined to make a collection but
over all the years it just accumulated and became a collection without us planning to do one." It began with the purchase
of a small Cézanne still-life.
Pablo Picasso
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"We had been friends with Picasso and organized many exhibitions of his work. The Picasso Collection became quite
important because there was always one picture in the current exhibition which we fell in love with. The late pictures, that are
in the big hall, are from an exhibition we did in 1969, called Picasso Today. The people, the collectors
and museum personnel thought he was becoming old and we couldn't sell them. We loved them, so we decided if people didn't
recognize the greatness of the late work of Picasso we would keep these paintings for ourselves. That is why I have five extremely
important very late paintings from 1967 - 1969."
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Title: Young Girl with Boat [Maya], 1938
Fillette au bateau [Maya] / Kleines Mädchen mit Spielzeugschiff [Maya]
Artist: Pablo Picasso (Spaniard 1881-1973)
Oil on Canvas / Öl auf Leinwand
Dimensions: 61 x 46 cm
Image Courtesy: Rosengart Collection, Lucerne /
Collection Rosengart, Lucerne / Sammlung Rosengart, Luzern
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"One who really recognized the importance of Picasso's
late work was the founding director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He asked us to sent the Musketeer painting to New
York to Nelson Rockefeller in the hopes that it would be purchased and donated to the MOMA. We did so and sent it
to him and it came right back. People did not appreciate Picasso's late work and it wasn't until fifteen to twenty years later
that young artists discovered the late Picasso and told their collectors that the late works were as important as the early
ones. It was at that point that interest began."
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Title: Crouching Nude, 1954
Nu accroupi / Kauernder Akt
Artist: Pablo Picasso (Spaniard 1881-1973)
Oil on Canvas / Öl auf Leinwand
Dimensions: 130.5 x 97 cm
Image Courtesy: Rosengart Collection, Lucerne /
Collection Rosengart, Lucerne / Sammlung Rosengart, Luzern
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Title: Woman with straw hat and flowers [Marie-Thérčse],
Femme au chapeau de paille sur fond fleuri [Marie-Thérčse] /
Frau mit Strohhut vor geblümtem Hindergrund [Marie-Thérčse], 1938
Artist: Pablo Picasso (Spaniard 1881-1973)
Medium: Oil on Canvas / Öl auf Leinwand
Dimensions: 73 x 60 cm
Image Courtesy: Rosengart Collection, Lucerne /
Collection Rosengart, Lucerne / Sammlung Rosengart, Luzern
"My father met Picasso in 1914 and when I first came to
Paris my father took me to the studio and introduced me to
Picasso, who apparently liked my features. Later we met him again and he looked at me and said come tomorrow and I'll do
a portrait of you. That was how it started. He did very simple line drawing, like an old master drawing. A few years later I had
changed my hair style and Picasso said 'oh you changed your hairdo, I think I have to do another portrait'. Over the years there
were five, and they are all at the Picasso Museum, in Luzern."
Title: Portrait of a painter, after El Greco /
Portrait d’un peintre, d’aprčs El Greco /
Portrait eines Malers, nach El Greco, 1950
Artist: Pablo Picasso (Spaniard 1881-1973)
Image Courtesy: Rosengart Collection, Lucerne /
Collection Rosengart, Lucerne / Sammlung Rosengart, Luzern
Picasso was known for painting his versions of others works. Angela is able to explain why this interested the artist.
"Generally he would make series of the Velasquez , the Delacroix, the Monet just
to see how would he have treated that subject. It's very interesting that he painted what that same subject
would mean for him. The El Greco is probably also a portrait of the painter. That
was one of the first he did after old masters. Later he did a series but the El Greco painting [at Sammlung Rosengart] in
1950 was the first one."
Paul Klee
Title: Angela Rosengart in front of Paul Klee’s drawing «X-chen» (little X) at the Museum Rosengart Collection
Photographer: John Blanchette
Image ©: IATWM
Courtesy: Rosengart Collection, Lucerne / Collection Rosengart, Lucerne / Sammlung Rosengart, Luzern
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Title: Twin Tents / Tente Double / Doppelzelt, 1923, 114
Artist: Paul Klee (Swiss 1870-1940)
Medium: Watercolor and Pencil / Aquarell und Bleistift
Dimensions: 50.6 x 31.8 cm
Image Courtesy: Rosengart Collection, Lucerne /
Collection Rosengart, Lucerne / Sammlung Rosengart, Luzern
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"The Klee Collection, that was my first love. My father did an exhibition of Klee in 1945, when I was thirteen and I immediately
felt that this was my world. In 1948 I joined my father during another Klee exhibition and it was here that I acquired my first Klee.
When you have one Klee it is beautiful but you need a second one. That in turn calls for a third one and finally there were 125.
I had about 50 Klee's in my bedroom one hanging after the other. My bedroom is empty now everything is hanging here."
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Joan Miró
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"The Miró Dancer was absolutely charming. It hadn't yet appeared in any picture or exhibition. When we bought it we thought we'd
send Miró a photo and ask what he could tell us about it. We received a four-page hand written letter from him saying how happy
he was that we had the picture. Miró believed it was lost and he explained how he did the picture and what it meant. I have the letter." She
adds, "Almost every picture has a story."
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Title: Dancer II, 1925
Danseuse II / Tänzerin II
Artist: Joan Miró (Spaniard 1893-1983)
Medium: Oil on Canvas / Öl auf Leinwand
Dimensions: 115.5 x 88.5 cm
Image Courtesy: Rosengart Collection, Lucerne /
Collection Rosengart, Lucerne / Sammlung Rosengart, Luzern
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19th Century Collection
Title: Woman with Black Stockings, ca 1900
Femme aux bas noirs / Frau mit schwarzen Strümpfen
Artist: Pierre Bonnard (French 1867-1947)
Medium: Oil on Cardboard / Öl auf Karton
Dimensions: 62 x 64.2 cm
Image Courtesy: Rosengart Collection, Lucerne /
Collection Rosengart, Lucerne / Sammlung Rosengart, Luzern
"As an art dealer you don't buy just Klee or Picasso, you buy
other masters also. It always happened that there was one work among them that we just fell in love with. My mother
loved19th Century works such as Monet, Matisse and Pissarro."
Pierre Bonnard often used his wife as his subject. Many of his portraits displayed his wife, known to be obsessed with her
personal hygiene, in the bath or ritual of bathing, such as in Woman with Black Stockings.
Title: Study of Bathers, ca. 1900 – 1906
Etude de baigneuses / Studie Badender
Artist: Paul Cézanne (French 1839-1906)
Medium: Oil on Canvas / Öl auf Leinwand
Dimensions: 21.2 x 32.5 cm
Image Courtesy: Museum Collection Rosengart, Lucerne
The Collection
Title: The building of the Rosengart Collection from the street /
le bâtiment de la Collection Rosengart vu de la rue /
Aussenansicht Sammlung Rosengart
Photographer: Christian Vogt
Image Courtesy: Rosengart Collection, Lucerne /
Collection Rosengart, Lucerne / Sammlung Rosengart, Luzern
"My father died in 1985 and I started to think what would become of the collection when I myself am gone. In 1992 I created
the Foundation and began looking for a building to house my collection. In 1998 the Swiss National Bank closed its Lucerne
branch and wanted to sell the building. It's a beautiful building and I thought it was ideal for my purpose. I approached the Mayor
and asked if the city could purchase the building and give it to me to house my collection. The city had just completed the Musical
and Congress center so I had to try to do it myself." Angela Rosengart succeeded in her efforts, "I managed to buy it for my
foundation and then I needed to find the funds for renovation. We found some generous people who gave the money for
the renovation. As the owner of the building and the foundation I could say who I wanted as the architect, and I wanted Roger Diener. The
son of a collector, he is really a gentleman who never put himself first. He wanted the pictures to be the stars.
In the old bank building the tellers sat behind a glass wall and could see the people working behind.
It was one immense open room. We needed walls. Roger Diener built the walls so one
could still see the columns and as much as possible he kept what could be kept from the old building. He gently changed
what we had to change to hang the pictures. It was just the right space for the late Picasso pictures. The pictures can breathe
and the visitors can breathe.
Title: Sammlung Rosengart, Interior / Intérieur de la Collection Rosengart / Innenansicht Sammlung Rosengart
Photographer: Christian Vogt
Image Courtesy: Rosengart Collection, Lucerne /
Collection Rosengart, Lucerne / Sammlung Rosengart, Luzern
Angela is involved with her art collection to this day,
"I am the Director of the Museum and I come here to work each day. I always walk the rooms and look at the pictures."
Angela replied to one of the most frequent questions she is asked,
"I am always asked if I have a favorite and I always say every day it's a different one. They are all favorites!"
The Sammlung Rosengart in Luzern with its exquisite collection of Classic Modernists is a wonderful way to enjoy works
headlined by Picasso and Klee, but has much more on display for art lovers.
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