Echoes of the post-impressionists
TheMuseum Marmottan Monet, situated in the posh environs of Paris and close to Bois de Boulogne, is known for its great collection of Impressionist works that include the famous Claude Monet painting ‘Impression, rising sun’ which gave its name to the movement.
Currently the Museum Marmottan Monet is having an unusual exhibition that has made a number of legendary artistic creations leave their permanent home in Switzerland for the first time in order to be displayed in Paris.
Some 80 works being shown here until the first week of February 2016 include masterpieces by Pierre Bonnard, Paul Cézanne, Giovanni Giacometti, Vincent van Gogh, Ferdinand Hodler, Aristide Maillol, Henri Manguin, Albert Marquet, Henri Matisse, Odilon Redon, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, August Rodin, Georges Rouault, Xavier Roussel, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Edouard Vuillard and Frederich Weild … to name only a few.
The Museum Marmottan Monet presents the impressive private collection of the Swiss couple
However, to really grasp the fabulous dimensions of this show let us go for a short while into the history of the enchanted residence that was, and still is, a shelter for the marvellous and relatively lesser known works of the above-named painters.
Villa Flora was built in Winterthur, not far from Zurich, in 1846 at the orders of a rich businessman initially as a luxurious family home with a vast garden and numerous summer and winter porticos. Its artistic saga, however, began in 1906 when a Swiss eye surgeon named Arthur Hahnloser and his wife Hedy acquired the house and settled down there with their two children.