Palazzo Reale in Milan presents the Thannhauser Collection in New York

Donated to the Guggenheim Museum in the 1960s, this set ranges from Renoir to Picasso, including Cézanne and Van Gogh. The history of the Thannhausers touches Switzerland closely.

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I could have seen the exhibition this spring at the Guggenheim in Bilbao. I was even invited. I would have been able to admire it this summer at the Hôtel de Caumont, in the heart of Aix-en-Provence. I did not find a direct bus from Arles. How are things? So I discovered the Thannhauser Collection in Italy not at the Guggenheim in Venice, which would have seemed logical, but at the Palazzo Reale in Milan. Promised by the ex-gallery owner and his wife at the Salomon Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1963, this set of modern classics does not find its ideal setting there. I will come back to that.

Before that, however, it is worth telling the story, which touches Switzerland in many ways. It exceeds that told in the catalog. The origin of the affair is due to Heinrich Thannhauser, born in 1859. This man with the Wagnerian name began by opening a gallery in Munich with a colleague. It was in 1904. Five years later, he was going it alone. “Blue rider” also insofar as it will quickly lean, after the French impressionists, on the Germanic avant-gardes. He also worked with the dynamic archi Jo van Gogh, Theo’s widow and Vincent’s sister-in-law. A female mistress without whom the Franco-Dutch genius would doubtless not have become what she made of her quickly enough. Heinrich will gradually be supported by his son Justin, born in 1892. A good division of labor will allow the family to settle in Berlin and Lucerne.

Stopover in Lucerne

Business flourished. Germany showed a more innovative taste than France before the war of 1914. The conflict, the vertiginous fall of the mark in 1923, the crash of 1929 have been overcome. Still, the Thannhausers were Jews and Hitler stood out, then won. Heinrich tried to escape to Switzerland in 1934. He never succeeded. A heart attack struck him as he crossed the border. Heinrich went to Paris with his first wife Käthe and their two sons. There they opened an office in Paris, rue de Miromesnil. Activities were now concentrated in Lucerne, which was looked after by his cousin Siegfried Rosengart. The latter is the father of Angela Rosengart, who created in 2002, in a former bank in the city, a foundation with an incredible number of Klee and Picasso. Angela is now 86 years old.

In 1940, the Thannhausers found themselves stranded in Switzerland. In the fall they will find a way to reach South America. The installation in New York will follow, where the emigrant will become a room merchant. A discreet address, but prestigious and well known. Man will only sell large paintings to large collectors. His private life will not be free from pain. One of his sons will be killed in Italy at the time of the American landing. The other will commit suicide in 1952. His wife will then disappear. She will nevertheless be replaced by Hilde. A new companion of the solid genre. The couple will decide to leave everything, or almost, at the Guggenheim. There will still be paintings for Hilde, now a widow. She will give it to the museum, but not all of it. Certain works, and not the least, will thus end up at the Kunstmuseum in Bern, in memory of the reception of 1940. I will content myself with quoting the famous portrait of Misia Natanson at the piano by Toulouse-Lautrec. Hilde died in 1991.

Friendship with Picasso

What the public can discover in Milan, after France and Spain, is part of the donation. The most important, arguably, that the Guggenheim has ever received. There are all the famous names there, or almost. Thanks to a beautiful portrait and an ugly bouquet of flowers, Auguste Renoir opens fires. He is followed by Vincent van Gogh, present with three paintings including “Montagne à Saint-Rémy”. Gauguin shines with his famous “Haire Mai”. Then come six Cézanne. Then the Picassos. The Thannhausers have always maintained, like the Rosengarts for the rest, privileged links with the Spaniard. Two canvases of youth dominate. These are “Le Moulin de la Galette” from 1901. An echo to that of Renoir. And the portrait of Fernande with a mantilla from 1905. A classic of the pink era. The Douanier Rousseau is found at the Palazzo Reale with one of his most frequently reproduced works. This is “The Football Party” from 1908, which looks more like a rugby match. The suite also reserves one of the most beautiful Franz Marc known (we have just seen him at the Orangerie in Paris), “The yellow cow” from 1911, as well as a Kandinsky to knock your socks off. I named “The Blue Mountain” from 1908.

If there are summits on the walls, there are also hollows. All the same, the whole appears uneven. Some Picassos thus remain small things, signed by an illustrious name. Fashion effects also play a role. Everything responds to the taste of the 1950s and 1960s. Small paintings in large carved and gilded frames, torn from paintings of the 18th century. Contemporary art still needed to be tamed, even if period color photos, placed in two display cases, show a Thannhauser interior furnished with seats and chests of drawers (horrible, for the rest) typical of the production after -war. It must also be said that the Milanese presentation does not help. It is the zero degree of staging and lighting. The Italian stopover deserved better. But we know that Palazzo Reale has always had its ups and downs.

Convenient

«The Thannhauser Collection», Palazzo Reale, 12, piazza Duomo, Milan, jusqu’au 9 février 2020. Tél. 0039 02 88 46 52 30, site www.palazzorealemilano.it
Open Monday to Sunday 9:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., Thursdays and Saturdays 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.

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