Picasso muse makes career out of collecting
An art dealer with one of Switzerland’s most remarkable collections of 20th century art is celebrating the second anniversary of her own museum in Lucerne.
Over half a century, Angela Rosengart acquired works ranging from Renoir to Kandinsky, becoming close friends with Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall along the way.
The Rosengart Collection, housed in the former Swiss National Bank building, is her second contribution to Lucerne’s art scene.
She and her father, Siegfried, donated their vast collection of Picasso drawings and sketches to Lucerne in 1978 to honour the lakeside city’s 800th anniversary.
Rosengart, who still radiates charm at 71, began her apprenticeship as an art dealer aged 16 at her father’s Lucerne gallery.
“We were very close and fell in love with the same paintings,” Rosengart told swissinfo.
During their 38-year-long partnership, father and daughter not only became renowned international dealers, but also amassed a private collection of over 220 works, mostly from 20th century French masters.
“We never set out to build up our own private collection – for one thing, it was a struggle to scrape enough money together to buy these works. We would just set aside pictures that we loved so much that we couldn’t think of parting with them.”
The first Klee
Rosengart’s face lights up when she recalls her first acquisition – a Paul Klee drawing – as an apprentice in 1948.
“I remember going to the man who managed Klee’s estate and telling him how much I loved this drawing,” she says.
“He asked me whether I would be willing to work a whole month to buy it and when I said ‘of course’, he sold it to me for SFr50 [$39], which was my monthly wage.”
The Rosengarts went on to collect over 125 drawing and paintings by Klee, who they were virtually alone in admiring back in the 1940s and 50s.
“I was so frustrated when people came up to me and said their children could draw like Klee because I knew that was nonsense but I didn’t know how to articulate his greatness into words.”
Travels with Chagall
The Rosengarts came into contact with many of the artists whose works they bought, especially with the Russian-French surrealist, Marc Chagall, and Picasso.
“I was immensely lucky to be in the presence of these great artists. They were friendly and warm so I didn’t feel too intimidated.
“We used to travel with Chagall and watch him paint. And most of these,” she says, motioning to his paintings and sketches, “were actually presents from him. I feel a lot of love when I look at them.”
A big part of the collection – around 50 works – is devoted to Picasso, who also made numerous portraits of Angela during her visits to his home in Cannes, France.
Picasso’s gaze
“The knowledge that this great man was doing a portrait of me was wonderful and frightening at the same time,” Rosengart says.
“Picasso’s eyes were the most extraordinary thing that I ever saw. There was a look that would go deep into you like an x-ray or arrows. You felt burned out, naked, when he looked at you. I felt like a heap of ashes afterwards.”
The Rosengarts continued to buy Picasso’s works into the late 1960s, when he fell out of favour with art critics. “People said he was past it or had gone a bit mad, but we knew instinctively that these works were still brilliant.”
Rosengart began searching for a home for her pictures in the 1990s.
“I’m not interested in the possession of the pictures, but in the enjoyment they give. I wanted them to be seen as I had planned, so it was the fulfilment of my dreams when I found this building.”
Despite her decades in the art business, Rosengart has an unpretentious approach to art and savours her daily walk around the collection.
“I perhaps look at a picture a little more deeply than before but it’s still the heart that speaks the loudest.”
swissinfo, Vanessa Mock in Lucerne
The Rosengart collection includes over 220 paintings, drawings and sculptures by 25 artists, including 125 works by Paul Klee und 50 works by Pablo Picasso.
Other artists include Bonnard, Cézanne, Chagall, Kandinsky, Matisse, Miró, Modigliani, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Signac and Vuillard.
The Rosengart collection was opened in March 2002.
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.