- Madrid beat Villarreal but Carvajal suffers knee injury
- Madrid beat Villarreal to move level with Liga leaders Barcelona
- Monaco take top spot in Ligue 1 with win at Rennes
- French rugby player on rape charge whistled but 'serene' on return
- Madrid beat Villarreal to level Liga leaders Barca
- Thuram treble fires Inter past Torino and up to second
- 'Fight': defiant Trump jets in to site of rally shooting
- Toddler among 3 dead in migrant Channel crossings
- Mexico City's new mayor sworn in with pledges on water, housing
- Israel on alert ahead of Hamas attack anniversary
- Guardians maul Tigers in MLB playoff series opener
- Macron criticises Israel on Gaza, Lebanon operations
- French rugby player whistled but 'serene' on return amid ongoing rape case
- Kovacic stars as Man City sink Fulham to get title bid back on track
- Retegui hat-trick fires five-star Atalanta to hammering of Genoa
- Heavyweights Australia, England off to World Cup winning starts
- Visiting UN refugee agency chief decries 'terrible crisis' in Lebanon
- Spinners come to party as England defeat Bangladesh at T20 World Cup
- Search continues for missing in deadly Bosnia floods
- Man City sink Fulham to get title bid back on track
- France's Auradou whistled on Pau return in Perpignan loss amid ongoing rape case
- A 'forgotten' valley in storm-hit North Carolina, desperate for help
- Arsenal hit back in style after Southampton scare
- Thousands march for Palestinians ahead of Oct 7 anniversary
- Hezbollah heir apparent Safieddine out of contact after strikes
- Liverpool stay top of Premier League as Arsenal, Man City win
- In dank Tour of Emilia, Pogacar shines in rainbow jersey
- DR Congo launches mpox vaccination drive, hoping to curb outbreak
- Trump returns to site of failed assassination
- Careless Leverkusen held to Bundesliga draw
- O'Brien's 'superstar' Kyprios posts landmark win on Arc weekend
- Toddler crushed to death in migrant Channel crossing
- Liverpool suffer Alisson injury blow
- Habosi helps Racing beat Vannes before Auradou's playing return
- Thousands march in London in support of Palestinians, 1 year after Oct 7
- Israel readying response to Iran missile attack
- Schutt, Mooney help Australia beat Sri Lanka in Women's T20 World Cup
- Liverpool extend Premier League lead with win at Palace
- Djokovic 'shakes rust off' to make third round of Shanghai Masters
- 'Imperfect' PSG fighting on all fronts - Luis Enrique
- Struggling Pakistan look to thwart adaptable England
- Child 'trampled to death' in asylum seekers' Channel crossing: minister
- Gauff fights back to set up Beijing final against Muchova
- Guardiola claims Premier League won't delay season for Man City
- Israel to mark October 7 attack as Gaza war spreads
- Gauff fights back to reach China Open final
- Recovering Stokes ruled out of first Pakistan Test
- Hezbollah battles troops on border as Israel pounds Lebanon
- Alcaraz, Sinner breeze into third round of Shanghai Masters
- Bagnaia wins Japan MotoGP sprint to cut Martin's lead
Making an impression: Swiss collection shown in a new light
The Langmatt's prestigious collection of Impressionist masterpieces is being seen in a new light, literally, after leaving the museum in northern Switzerland on loan for the first time.
Around 50 paintings, including works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cezanne, Claude Monet and Edgar Degas, are being shown in brighter surroundings at the Hermitage Foundation in Lausanne while the Langmatt undergoes renovation.
"I've never seen the paintings in this light," the Langmatt's director Markus Stegmann said.
The collection has never been seen outside the cocoon of the Langmatt villa in Baden, near Zurich, where the artworks are displayed under the light of crystal chandeliers and latticed windows.
At the Hermitage, overlooking the western Swiss city of Lausanne, the 19th-century villa's large bay windows give free rein to the same play of light that inspired the Impressionists.
The collection includes Renoir's "The Braid" (1886-1887), Monet's "Ice Floes at Twilight" (1893) and Gauguin's "Still Life with Bowl of Fruit and Lemons" (1889-1890).
The exhibition, which runs until November 3, pays tribute to not only the 150 years since the start of the Impressionist art movement but also to Sidney and Jenny Brown, the couple who amassed the collection between 1908 and 1919.
- Art from the heart -
A wealthy family from the industrial bourgeoisie of northern Switzerland, the Browns showed exceptional taste.
All the works "were bought with the heart" rather than on the advice of art experts, Stegmann said.
Take for example Eugene Boudin's "Washerwomen on the Bank of the Touques" (1895), showing the women leaning over the water with a smoking factory in the background.
Bought by the Browns during their Paris honeymoon in 1896, the painting "is not an easy work, it's not a loveable work", said Hermitage Foundation director Sylvie Wuhrmann.
The Browns also collected works by the Munich Secession association of visual artists, before becoming exclusively passionate about contemporary French artists.
Renoir became a big favourite, alongside Cezanne and Camille Pissarro.
The couple's devotion to Impressionism was not without risk in society circles where such artists raised eyebrows.
- Change of style -
Alongside "The Boat" (circa 1878) and the portraits of his children, Renoir's "The Braid" is among the most recognisable works in the collection.
It is inspired by the classicist works of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, and it has even been nicknamed the Langmatt Mona Lisa.
It also goes well with the Hermitage's own collection: the Lausanne museum has an exceptional set of 17 paintings and drawings by Suzanne Valadon, the model depicted in "The Braid".
In 1919, for reasons difficult to pin down, the Browns changed their tastes. Out went Impressionism and in came 18th-century French painters.
They sold eight artworks, including paintings by Renoir and Cezanne, to buy "Young Girl with a Cat" (circa 1770) by Jean-Honore Fragonard, which is also being shown in Lausanne.
And the couple asked the Austrian artist Max Oppenheimer to paint their portrait in a style mixing Expressionism and Cubism.
In 1941, Sidney Brown died and Jenny Brown stopped buying art, living as a recluse at the Langmatt villa until her own death in 1968 aged 96.
- Firmer financial footing -
When Stegmann reached out for a temporary home for the Langmatt's paintings during the villa's renovation, the Hermitage enthusiastically said yes as it celebrates its own 40th anniversary.
Stegmann said the collaboration also made it possible to publish a comprehensive catalogue by experts on the Langmatt collection, something the Baden museum did not have the means to do alone.
In November, facing serious financial difficulties, the museum sold three Cezannes at auction in New York.
"Fruits et pot de gingembre" (1890-1893) fetched $38.9 million, "Quatre pommes et un couteau" (circa 1885) sold for $10.4 million, and "La mer a l'Estaque" (1878-1879) raised $3.2 million.
At the time, Stegmann called the sale a painful last resort to secure the museum's long-term future.
After Lausanne, the collection will be shown in Cologne, Germany, from March to July 2025, and then in Vienna from September next year to February 2026, before returning home to Baden.
Ch.Havering--AMWN