Surrealist masterpieces showcased at Fondation Beyeler in Basel

Surrealist masterpieces at the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen (BS) Keystone-SDA

The Fondation Beyeler is presenting the world premiere of a selection of Surrealist works from the Hersaint Collection. This includes some 50 major works by artists such as Max Ernst, Salvador Dali and René Magritte.

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La Clef des Songes (The interpretation of dreams) presents the world premiere of numerous works from the private collection of Claude Hersaint (1904-1993) that have never been exhibited in public, Fondation Beyeler’s Raphaël Bouvier reported on Friday. The exhibition, on view from Sunday until May 4, was organised with the support of Evangéline Hersaint, the collector’s daughter.

The list of artists presented at the Foundation is a who’s who of the Surrealist movement: Max Ernst, Salvador Dali, René Magritte, Joan Miro, Pablo Picasso, Man Ray, Jean Dubuffet, Alberto Giacometti, Henri Rousseau, Yves Tanguy, Balthus, Louise Bourgeois, to name just a few.

First acquisition at 17

Claude Hersaint acquired his first Surrealist work at the age of 17. It was Max Ernst’s Cage and Bird (circa 1920), a small painting displayed at the entrance to the exhibition. Over the years, the banker built up a collection of some 150 surrealist works “among the most remarkable in the world”, as Raphaël Bouvier pointed out.

Throughout his life, Claude Hersaint forged friendships with numerous artists, most notably Max Ernst. “Between my father and Max Ernst, it was a love story,” said Evangéline Hersaint at the exhibition presentation.

Among the major works in the exhibition is L’Ange du foyer (Le Triomphe du surréalisme), painted by Max Ernst in 1937. There is also Salvador Dali’s Le Jeu lugubre (1929), and Balthus’ Passage du Commerce-Saint-André (1952-1954), which has been on permanent loan to the Fondation Beyeler for several years.

Other iconic Surrealist works in the Hersaint collection include La Clef des Songes (1930) and La Gravitation Universelle (1953), by René Magritte. “This painting was in my room when I was a child,” says Evangéline Hersaint, as she passes Jean Dubuffet’s Bocal à vache (1943), and “this is my portrait painted by Max Ernst when I was about five”, she adds, pointing to Evangeline, a 1957 work.

Friendship between Hersaint and Beyeler

Works from the Hersaint collection are presented alongside several paintings and sculptures from the Fondation Beyeler collection. “Claude Hersaint and Ernst Beyeler have a long-standing friendship,” recalls Evangéline Hersaint. The two collections have both similarities and differences, but they complement each other “ideally”, emphasised Raphaël Bouvier.

Claude Hersaint was born in São Paulo, Brazil, where his Alsace-Lorraine family emigrated in the mid-19th century. He moved to Paris in his teens and studied law. He then became a banker. In 1941, he left France because of the war and fled to Rio de Janeiro, then New York.

Claude Hersaint returned to France after the war. From 1948, he lived in Paris and Montreux before settling in Crans-Montana in canton Valais, where he died in 1993. His wife Françoise Hersaint took it upon herself to ensure that the collection would not be lost. Today, Evangéline Hersaint is the head of the collection, making it accessible to the general public for the first time with the exhibition La Clef des Songes at the Fondation Beyeler.

Adapted from German by DeepL/jdp

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