Museum Oskar Reinhart am Stadtgarten

In Dialogue - The Two Oskar Reinhart Collections, Winterthur

From 19 February 2009 to 1 August 2010 the two museums of the collector Oskar Reinhart in Winterthur are to merge temporarily. The renovation of the Villa Am Römerholz provides a unique opportunity to see an important selection of its world-famous paintings by old masters and French Impressionists at the Museum Oskar Reinhart am Stadtgarten in Winterthur, set here in an exciting dialogue with Reinhart's paintings by German and Swiss painters.



Anselm Feuerbach (1828 - 1880) Iphigenie, 1870 Museum Oskar Reinhart am Stadtgarten		Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780 - 1867) Bildnis von Delphine Ingres-Ramel, 1859 Sammlung Oskar Reinhart am Römerholz

The joint exhibition of the two collections owned by Oskar Reinhart (1885 - 1965) in Winterthur is indeed a unique event, and one which is unlikely to recur in this form for decades to come. Once the renovation of the gallery and home of the Oskar Reinhart collection Am Römerholz has been completed, the paintings will return there permanently, in keeping with the collectors wishes. For the duration of the exhibition entitled In Dialogue - The Two Oskar Reinhart Collections, Winterthur, visitors will have an opportunity to enjoy the paintings which Oskar Reinhart collected between 1920 and 1960 as an ensemble of works that has evolved over time. It also means that, for the first time, the collector himself becomes the focal point of an exhibition.

Oskar Reinhart's significance as a collector is due not least to the fact that, after 1920, he was one of very few people who continued to devote their attention to 19th century German artists - at a time when, internationally, French Impressionism had firmly established itself as the sole threshold to Modernism. It is therefore not surprising that the paintings and drawings at the Museum am Stadtgarten, which opened in 1951, are regarded as the most important body of 19th century German art to have been assembled outside Germany.



Arnold Böcklin (1827 - 1901) Triton und Nereide, 1877 Museum Oskar Reinhart am Stadtgarten		Eugène Delacroix (1798 - 1863) Tod der Ophelia, 1844 Sammlung Oskar Reinhart am Römerholz

Presenting striking parallels
The exhibition combines around 280 paintings from both collections. It is housed on the first and second floors of the Museum Oskar Reinhart am Stadtgarten and is structured mainly by theme, which serves to highlight in a most exemplary way the artistic criteria by which Reinhart selected his works. Reinhart had a marked preference for picturesque, flowingly executed paintings, and so his attention naturally focused on the genres of portrait, landscape and still life, as well as on artists who, in their day, already enjoyed an intense exchange across national borders. In addition to the many different connections between German and French 19th century painters, another theme emerges, one which has always had a considerable influence on the selection and presentation of works at the Römerholz Gallery: namely the elements which link the paintings by old masters with those of their successors at the threshold of Modernism.




Frank Buchser (1828 - 1890) Landschaft bei Scarborough, 1874 Museum Oskar Reinhart am Stadtgarten		Alfred Sisley (1839 - 1899) Beim Aquädukt von Louveciennes, 1876 Sammlung Oskar Reinhart am Römerholz

The exhibition highlights include the rooms featuring portraits by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Wilhelm Leibl, Edouard Manet and Ferdinand Hodler, and still life paintings by Gustave Courbet and Hans Thoma. While these works were all painted almost around the same time, they are rarely - if ever - juxtaposed within museum galleries. The three rooms containing four centuries of landscapes also yield unexpected cross-references, for instance between the works of contemporaries Alfred Sisley and Frank Buchser or Camille Pissarro and Wilhelm Trübner. As a concept which was drafted by the collector for the hanging of his paintings reveals, the two exponents of Romanticism Eugène Delacroix and Arnold Böcklin had from time to time been placed side by side in the Römerholz gallery. Now juxtaposed once again, they reveal a wealth of literary and historical references. Indeed, Realism as the pivotal movement in the visual arts around 1850 is unlikely to be showcased more impressively as a movement out of a European mould than in the room whose focal point is the incomparable Courbet group from the Römerholz. In a few individual cases important areas of the collection have been left out for conservation reasons. For instance, none of the drawings or Gothic panel paintings is on show, and Honoré Daumier is not exhibited on a scale befitting the importance which the collector actually attached to him.




Carl Schuch (1846 - 1903) Stillleben mit Wildente, um 1885/87 Museum Oskar Reinhart am Stadtgarten		Francisco de Goya (1746 - 1828) Lachsstillleben, um 1808/12 Sammlung Oskar Reinhart am Römerholz

A history meticulously documented
Key areas of the exhibition look at the history of the collection and the collector's personality. A selection of documents from the abundant archives at the Römerholz provides an insight into the way in which Oskar Reinhart worked. A portrait gallery also refers to the family's long-standing tradition of patronage. Contemporary artists had already received the support of the collector's father, Theodor Reinhart, the proprietor of the Volkart Brothers trading firm. A group of paintings, notably by Geneva and Winterthur artists, demonstrates how this tradition lived on with Oskar Reinhart. The catalogue published for the exhibition contains a history of the Oskar Reinhart collection as well as a comparison of twenty pairings of paintings. They underscore the fundamental idea behind the exhibition and the Oskar Reinhart collection - namely the dialogue in which European painters engaged over a period of four centuries, across all ages and nations.




Wilhelm Leibl (1844 - 1900) Die Dorfpolitiker, 1877 Museum Oskar Reinhart am Stadtgarten		Edouard Manet (1832 - 1883) Im Café, 1878 Sammlung Oskar Reinhart am Römerholz

The majority of the paintings owned by the Museum Oskar Reinhart am Stadtgarten not on show as part of the In Dialogue exhibition can still be seen on the third floor as part of a study exhibition.

General information
Museum Oskar Reinhart am Stadtgarten
Stadthausstrasse 6
CH-8400 Winterthur
Tel. +41 (0)52 267 51 72
Fax +41 (0)52 267 62 28
museum.oskarreinhart@win.ch
www.museumoskarreinhart.ch
http://www.bak.admin.ch/bak/
www.roemerholz.ch
More informations regarding "In Dialogue": dialog@win.ch

Opening hours
Tuesday 10am to 8pm
Wednesday to Sunday 10am to 5pm
Closed Mondays

Public holidays see opening hours

Tickets
CHF 15.- / 12.- (concessions)
Discounted tickets are available for groups of 10 or more (max. 25).

Guided tours
Evening Museum tours: every Tuesday from 6.30pm to 7.30pm
Lunchtime Museum tours: every second Thursday from 12.30pm to 1pm.
For exact dates see: Culture in Winterthur

Private guided tours by arrangement
Duration: 1 hour, guided tour fees: weekdays: in German CHF 160.- / in other languages CHF 190.- plus discounted admissions. On Sundays and public holidays: in German CHF 190.- / in other languages CHF 220.-, plus discounted admissions.
Guides tours are also possible outside opening hours. Rates available on request.

Study exhibition on the 3rd floor
A large part of the works from the Museum Oskar Reinhart am Stadtgarten not on show at the exhibition can be viewed on the Museum's top floor. Guided tours are available on request.

Wheelchair access
Unrestricted wheelchair access to the exhibition rooms is available throughout. Please contact the ticket office.

Museum Pass
Experience and enjoy the Winterthur museums with the Winterthur Museum Pass.
CHF 20.- (1 day, excl. Technorama), CHF 30.- (2 days)
The museum pass is available at the museum and from the Tourist Office.

City of Winterthur Museum Education Programme
The wide range of offers available to schools is listed under: www.museumspaedagogik.winterthur.ch

The brochure is available from:
Museumspädagogik Stadt Winterthur
Postfach, CH-8402 Winterthur
Tel. +41 (0)52 267 51 08
museumspaedagogik@win.ch