A remarkable collection of French Impressionist masterpieces from Switzerland's Museum Langmatt has found a temporary home at Vienna's Lower Belvedere, offering visitors an intimate glimpse into how one passionate couple lived surrounded by works by Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Paul Cézanne. The exhibition, running through February, showcases paintings that were collected not as investments but as beloved companions in daily life.
The collection began with a love story between Swiss industrialists Jenny and Sidney Brown and a single Cézanne still life they encountered in Paris in 1908. Unlike many collectors who acquired art for prestige or financial gain, the Browns purchased paintings they wanted to live with in their Villa Langmatt near Zurich. Their passion lay specifically with French Impressionists, drawn to the movement's vibrant snapshots of fleeting moments, ephemeral lighting effects, and often sketch-like brushwork.
For decades, this private collection remained hidden from public view, earning it a reputation as an insider's secret in the art world. The villa eventually became a museum, but while undergoing renovation, the precious artworks have been granted rare permission to travel. The Lower Belvedere's Orangery now hosts these treasures, providing what may be the only opportunity to see many of these works outside their Swiss home for years to come.
The intimate nature of the Browns' collecting philosophy is immediately apparent in the exhibition's presentation. Despite bearing illustrious names, the collection offers a deeply personal window into the life of this art-loving family. All 66 paintings are medium to small format, each crowned with heavy, ornate gold frames that reflect the domestic setting for which they were originally chosen. The salon-style architecture of the exhibition space, accompanied by personal notes, letters, and contracts, recreates the experience of having these master artists as household companions.
Visitors can admire the delicate interplay of light and shadow in Eugène Boudin's beach and water scenes, alongside Claude Monet's mysterious ice floes captured in twilight, painted in 1893. Camille Pissarro contributes picturesque meadow and garden scenes, including 'Meadow in Éragny in Autumn' from 1899 and 'Boulevard Montmartre, Spring' from 1897. Still lifes by Paul Cézanne, including 'Peaches, Carafe and Person' from around 1900 and 'Trees and Rocks in the Park of Château Noir' from around 1904, showcase his distinctive approach to form and color. Paul Gauguin's 'Still Life with Fruit Bowl and Lemons' from around 1889-1890 adds another dimension to the collection's scope.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir dominates the collection, with a full third of the 66 paintings bearing his signature and demonstrating his complete stylistic range. His quick brushstrokes bring life to idyllic boat scenes, while his flower paintings reveal a lush heaviness in their blooms. The weightless quality of his miniature portraits and nudes shows soft-focus figures that seem to dissolve into pastel-colored backgrounds, as seen in works like 'The Braid' from 1886-1887.
While this exhibition may not offer a reunion with the most famous Impressionist icons, it provides something perhaps more valuable: an invitation to explore the subtle facets and nuances of this pivotal artistic era. The show traces through its carefully preserved salon architecture and personal documents what it truly felt like to share living space with works by Monet, Cézanne, and Renoir. Most importantly, it reveals numerous artistic gems that will likely not travel again once Museum Langmatt's renovation is complete, making this a rare opportunity to witness these masterpieces in an entirely new context.
