Text by Angelika Affentranger-Kirchrath, Margrit Hahnloser-Ingold, Rudolf Koella, Henriette Hahnloser, Ursula Perucchi-Petri, Lukas Gloor.
As the last embers of Impressionism flickered out amid the early stirrings of the modernist avant garde, the collector couple Arthur and Hedy Hahnloser were on hand to speed French painting's transition into the twentieth century. Between 1905 and 1936, the Hahnlosers assembled a small but breathtaking collection of works by the leaders of the Nabi and Fauve movements, and their precursors Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Paul Cézanne and Auguste Renoir. Buying directly at modest prewar rates from artists that were still making their names, such as Pierre Bonnard, Henri Matisse, Odilon Redon, Georges Rouault, Aristide Maillol, Félix Vallotton and Edouard Vuillard, the Hahnlosers nursed French painting of the nineteenth century into the twentieth century. During the First World War, their house, the Villa Flora in Wintherthur, Switzerland, provided refuge for many of these artists, and Bonnard and Vallotton in particular developed close friendships with the couple. (Félix Vallotton's critical judgment informed their acquisition of works by Van Gogh and Cézanne, and after the artist's death Hedy Hahnloser wrote Vallotton's biography.) Now, in this volume authored by the art historian Margrit Hahnloser-Ingold, also the couple's granddaughter, the story of this legendary collection is told for the first time. Alongside 250 color plates, The Hahnloser Collection offers a chronology detailing the couple's purchases, their travels and their relationships with artists, in an unprecedented insider peek into the world of the Nabis, the Fauves and turn-of-the-century French painting.
Featured image, "The Woman in Green in the Pink Armchair (Laurette)" (1917), by Henri Matisse, is reproduced from The Arthur and Hedy Hahnloser Collection
"Stocky and rather stout, he looks more like a nice history or geography teacher, especially because of his large round horn-rim glasses, which give this shortsighted man the appearance of a bookworm… He likes to talk about painting and seems to be a born teacher. He expresses himself with intensity, yet gently and patiently, displaying much sociability. In the first room of his apartment-studio stood a turntable on which was a composition with a clay figure. On our first visit, it was a female nude, in our opinion already quite advanced. Ten days later, on the same modeling table, there was a completely different sculpture, an amusing half-surrealist, half-cubist composition. When I asked him why there was no longer any trace of that wonderful work from the week before, Matisse explained that he had 're-kneaded' it in the meantime to try out something else. Like a pianist who has to do his daily finger exercises, he deemed it of the utmost importance as a painter 'fascinated with form' to keep his fingers agile. Work with a brush, and even more so with the pencil, was strongly influenced by his modeling clay, and this had become indispensable to him: 'In this way, I keep my sensitivity awake.'"
Hedy Hahnolser, describing Henri Matisse, as quoted in The Arthur and Hedy Hahnloser Collection.
FORMAT: Hbk, 10 x 12.5 in. / 384 pgs / 250 color / 130 b&w. LIST PRICE: U.S. $75.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $90 ISBN: 9781935202639 PUBLISHER: D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers AVAILABLE: 8/31/2011 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of print AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: WRLD Export via T&H
The Arthur and Hedy Hahnloser Collection An Eye for Art Shared with Artists
Published by D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers. Text by Angelika Affentranger-Kirchrath, Margrit Hahnloser-Ingold, Rudolf Koella, Henriette Hahnloser, Ursula Perucchi-Petri, Lukas Gloor.
As the last embers of Impressionism flickered out amid the early stirrings of the modernist avant garde, the collector couple Arthur and Hedy Hahnloser were on hand to speed French painting's transition into the twentieth century. Between 1905 and 1936, the Hahnlosers assembled a small but breathtaking collection of works by the leaders of the Nabi and Fauve movements, and their precursors Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Paul Cézanne and Auguste Renoir. Buying directly at modest prewar rates from artists that were still making their names, such as Pierre Bonnard, Henri Matisse, Odilon Redon, Georges Rouault, Aristide Maillol, Félix Vallotton and Edouard Vuillard, the Hahnlosers nursed French painting of the nineteenth century into the twentieth century. During the First World War, their house, the Villa Flora in Wintherthur, Switzerland, provided refuge for many of these artists, and Bonnard and Vallotton in particular developed close friendships with the couple. (Félix Vallotton's critical judgment informed their acquisition of works by Van Gogh and Cézanne, and after the artist's death Hedy Hahnloser wrote Vallotton's biography.) Now, in this volume authored by the art historian Margrit Hahnloser-Ingold, also the couple's granddaughter, the story of this legendary collection is told for the first time. Alongside 250 color plates, The Hahnloser Collection offers a chronology detailing the couple's purchases, their travels and their relationships with artists, in an unprecedented insider peek into the world of the Nabis, the Fauves and turn-of-the-century French painting.
