OSCAR GHEZ : A PASSIONATE COLLECTOR, FONDATION DE L'HERMITAGE, Lausanne
OSCAR GHEZ, A PASSIONATE
ART COLLECTOR
Treasures of the Petit Palais Geneva
FONDATION DE L'HERMITAGE,
Lausanne
24.January-01.June
Curators;Slyvie Wuhrmann
Aurelie Couvreur
Corinne Currat
Reporter; Nazli Kok Akbas
Felix Vallotton,(1865-1925, France) Nu couché au tapis Rouge, 1909, Oil on Canvas.The Fondation Petit Palais, Geneva.
In spring 2025, the Fondation de l'Hermitage, Lausanne, Switzerland, hosts a particuarly unusual collection of impressionnist and post-impressionist masterpieces from the Petit Palais, Geneva.
In the 1950s Oscar Ghez began acquiring works that reflect his remarkably free approach to collection, with an interest in late- 19th and early 20th century painting that was not confined to the great masters.
Alongside magnificent works by Edouard Manet and Auguste Renoir, Picasso, Ghez also acquired superb paintings by artists lesser known at the time, such as Gustave Caillebotte, Louis Valtat, some of whom have since become iconic.
Who is Oscar Ghez?
Oscar Ghez was born in Tunisia in 1905. He was the youngest son of Corine and Angelo Ghez, his Florentine-born mother was a daughter of Baron Giacomo di Castelnuovo, personal and intimate doctor to the King Victor-Emmanuel II of Italy, after diplomat and the doctor to the bey of Tunis.
Anonymous, Portrait of Oscar Ghez,1991.The Fondation Petit Palais, Geneva
The memories of Oscar Ghez's childhood are steeped in the matriarchal structure of the family and the deep love he felt for his sisters and brother.
The family moved to France at his age of ten, where he obtained his university degree in economics and business studies.
Ghezs brothers worked in rubber industry, first in Italy, and from 1938 in France, before going into the exhile in the USA during Second World War. The two brothers have had a very difficult time in the United States, but they never stop working hard and never give up hope of returning to France. 1945, after France was liberated, they returned to Lyon and re-established their business. Oscar Ghez began colecting on his return to France in 1945.
For Oscar Ghez, the 50s was a very difficult time emotionally. It was during this period that he gradually lost the members of his family who were below him.
After this very difficult period, which left him disoriented, he redirected his energy towards new directions.
It was at this time, during one of his regular visits to Paris, to his only son, Claude Ghez , who was born in 1939 and currently Professor Emeritus of Neuroscience at Columbia University in the USA. During his stay in Paris he noticed the work of Gustave Caillebotte and, with the acquisition of Caillebotte's work The Bridge of Europe in 1957, Oscar Ghez began his art collecting journey, which he continued until the end of his life.
Oscar Ghez was a man of action, passionate and social, who put a great deal of energy into developing a collection of fine art, which he shared with the public in his museum "Petit Palais de Genève" in Switzerland, as well as in external exhibitions in New York, Moscow, Tokyo and Tel Aviv.
In Building up his extensive collection, a several thousand works, Oscar Ghez's characteristic was to listen very selectively to advice and to follow his instincts and associations with certain artists works.
Ghez was guided by two principles: focusing on 1880-1930 and rejecting abstraction.
Ghez also purchased many paintings by women, including Nathalie Kraemer, Tamara de Lempicka and Suzanne Valadon, long before their work began to be studied and finally received the recognition it deserved.
A particular feature of the Ghez collection is his early acquisition of works by Women painters in numbers that were unusual for the time.
Oscar Ghez's approach to the mainstream of figurative painting also took him off the beaten track. Along with the great names of Impressionism, Favism, the School of Paris and Cubism. His attention to the fringes of artistic movements led him to the early discovery and collection of Gustave Caillebotte, Charles Angrand and Suzanne Valadon.
Ghez's enthusiasm for certain painters, the most iconic of which is Lausanne-born Theophile-Alexandre Steinlen. Steinlen moved to Paris in 1881 and became a regular at the Chat Noir cabaret on Monmartre, for which he designed posters.
Steinlen was an activist as an artist, particularly interested in social issues, and a passionate critic of the horrors and destruction of the First World War.
In 18th-century Europe, the art world was governed by clear rules that were undeniably gendered. Then, in the early 19th century, women painters broke through the barriers of the art world and established themselves in a field dominated by their male counterparts, their art reflecting a mixture of skill and resilience.
As a result of his sensitivity to the artists of the periphery and his keen eye, Ghez was collected with a particular interest in the acquisition of women painters of the period.
Who is Seraphine de Senlis?
Seraphine Louis (known as Srephine de Senlis (1864-1942) was a French painter and artist.She was born into an extremely modest family, she worked as a housekeeper in households.its not very clear how she started painting.
She could only paint in her spare time, usually at night by candlelight in secret isolation.
In 1912 her work has discovered by the German art dealer and collector Wilheim Uhde.
Self-taught, she was inspired by stained-glass churc windows and other religious art. She suffered from mental health issues throuhout her life, last years she remeined in hospitals until her death.
The intensity of her paintings, both in terms of colour and replicative design, is interpreted as a reflection of her own psyche, walking a tightrope between ecstasy and deep melancholy.
Her work fascinates me, especially for the story of Seraphine de Senlis and for her works, bright and vivid colours, depicting joyful followers who, unfortunately, are in stark contrast to their creator.
Nazli Kok Art Reports, The Fondation del'Hermitage, Lausanne.
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