The Collection
The Kunst Museum Winterthur collection spans the period from the 17th century to the present day. Over the course of time, important historical collections have come together under one roof: the holdings of the Kunstverein, founded in 1848, the Oskar Reinhart Foundation with its focus on German Romanticism, and the special collections of Jakob Briner and Emil S. Kern, which, in addition to works from the Golden Age of Dutch painting, also house a comprehensive collection of miniatures.
Thus, art history can be experienced almost without a gap from the Baroque to the present: from Rembrandt to Caspar David Friedrich, from Albert Anker and Ferdinand Hodler to the Impressionists and from Pablo Picasso to Gerhard Richter.
* Art in Winterthur has a new name.
The Kunstmuseum Winterthur, the Museum Oskar Reinhart and the Villa Flora are now called: Kunst Museum Winterthur.
The collected masterpieces of the Kunst Museum Winterthur reach from the 17th century to the present day. The collection contains important groups of works of Jean-Etienne Liotard, Anton Graff and Ferdinand Hodler. Another highlight are the early romantic paintings of the circle around Caspar David Friedrich, which form the most important collection of this period outside Germany. The realism of Wilhelm Leibl, Adolph Menzel and Albert Anker further leads the way to the imaginary worlds of Arnold Böcklin. In contrast to these works stand the French plein air painters and Impressionists, presented by excellent painters like Claude Monet and Alfred Sisley. The Post-Impressionists are represented by Vincent van Gogh and the Nabis painters Pierre Bonnard, Édouard Vuillard, Félix Vallotton and Ker-Xavier Roussel, which are closely linked to Winterthur.
The further development of classical modern art can be seamlessly tracked by means of outstanding paintings and sculptures. Exemplary of the European Postwar Art are Alberto Giacometti and Giorgio Morandi. Other key works represent Minimalism and Postminimalism, among which the Arte Povera of the 1960s. They form the basis of a collection of contemporary art that is continually being expanded.
