The Museum Marmottan Monet, a museum of collectors par excellence, will present from September 10th 2015 to Februay 7th 2016 the most prestigious private collection of the Swiss couple Arthur and Hedy Hahnloser. For the first time in France, the masterpieces of this ensemble are shown. 75 masterpieces of Pierre Bonnard, Paul Cézanne, Giovanni Giacometti, Ferdinand Hodler, Aristide Maillol, Édouard Manet, Henri-Charles Manguin, Pierre-Albert Marquet, Henri Matisse, Odilon Redon, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Félix-Édouard Vallotton, Vincent van Gogh and Édouard Vuillard illustrate the story of this couple, two passionated collectors of painting, drawing and sculpture, which they enthusiastically collected during their life together, from 1905 to Arthur’s death in 1936.

Living for art. Collecting. Such was the raison d’être of the couple formed by Hedy Bühler and the ophthalmol­ogist Arthur Hahnloser. Faithful to Hedy’s maxim of “living with our times,” this Swiss duo looked to the art of the day, assembling works by Nabis and Fauve movements. Friendships soon sprung up between painters and art lovers, and they regularly came together at Arthur and Hedy’s residence in Winterthur, the Villa Flora. The couple’s house became a place of encounter, exchange, and creation, both a haven and a studio. The portraits of the Hahnloser-Bühlers and the canvases executed at Villa Flora, which bear witness to those happy days, formed the core of the family collection. Over thirty years, the walls of the home became covered with paintings. Each room, and even the bathroom with its accumulation of still lifes, contains its share of artworks.

The exhibition offers a large selection of rare masterpieces such as La Blanche et la Noire (1913) and Le chapeau violet (1907) by Vallotton, Effet de glace (or Le Tub) (1909) and Le Débarcadère (l’embarcadère) de Cannes (1934) by Bonnard, Le semeur (1888) by Van Gogh, Amazone (1883) by Manet, Portrait de l’artiste (1877-1878) by Cézanne, Nice, cahier noir (1918) by Matisse, La partie de dames à Amfréville (1906) by Vuillard and Les anémones (1912) by Redon. Organized in different monographic sections, the exhibition illustrates the relation of the main artists of the twenty century to Arthur and Hedy Hahnloser. It recalls the story of one of the most engaged and passionated couple at the begining of the century.

The descendants of Arthur and Hedy Hahnloser have decided to reveal this outstanding collection for the first time in Paris, at the former townhouse of Paul Marmottan which, for these few months, will be home to these exceptional works.

Curators: Angelika Affentranger-Kirchrath, Curator, Villa Flora - Winterthur and Marianne Mathieu, Deputy Director, Head of Collections, Musée Marmottan Monet.