Art & Landscape in Switzerland

This tour explores art collections within Switzerland’s beautiful surroundings, investigating how art and landscape are profoundly intertwined, with a particular focus on works from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Overview

The landscapes of Switzerland – its lakes, Alpine peaks and elegant cityscapes – have long captured the imaginations of travellers and artists, and today, the country is home to some of the world’s finest collections of art.

The Swiss capital, Bern, will be our base throughout our exploration of Switzerland’s natural and artistic treasures. Mountains watch over the medieval architecture of its UNESCO-listed old town, complete with Gothic-style Minster and 13th century Clock Tower. The city’s Kunstmuseum is the repository for an important collection of art dating from the 15th to the 20th century, including pieces by Monet, Picasso and Klee as well as the famed 19th century Swiss painter Ferdinand Hodler.

The Victorian critic, patron and artist John Ruskin observed the Alpine landscape as it changed over the course of 40 years, and his preoccupation with the poetic qualities and environmental importance of Switzerland’s natural landscape still resonates today. We will consider these themes as we travel by train, taking in views of mountains, vineyards and Lake Geneva, and by boat as we cruise around Lake Lucerne.

The picturesque city of Lucerne presents layers of Swiss elegance: the medieval old town, eponymous lake and dramatic mountainous backdrop combine to provide a fitting home for another significant art collection. The Rosengart Collection was amassed by Swiss art dealer Siegfried Rosengart and his daughter Angela, a close friend of Picasso, and is now on public display. Featuring modern art by the likes of Bonnard, Braque, Picasso, Kandinsky and Klee, to name but a few, the collection attests to the passion, taste and generosity of its founders.

The most important global collection of works by Klee is to be found in a museum dedicated to the artist in Bern. The displays are constantly rotated, not only due to the size and nature of the gallery’s holdings, but also in order to provide new and sometimes unexpected perspectives on Klee’s work.

Basel, a historically important city on the Rhine, is renowned for its iconic architecture, world-famous ART Basel festival and wealth of galleries and art museums. Here, we will visit the impressive Kunstmuseum, Switzerland’s largest public art collection. The museum has its roots in the Amerbach Cabinet, amassed by Hans Holbein and later purchased in 1661 by the city of Basel and the University of Basel, making it the world’s first public art museum. Featuring paintings from the Renaissance as well as the Dutch and Flemish schools of the 17th century, it is also particularly rich in 19th and 20th century art, including pieces by the Impressionists and Expressionists.

We also hope to include an opportunity, weather permitting, to become immersed in the Swiss landscape with an excursion by train to the picturesque mountain village of Grindelwald at the base of the Eiger and Jungfrau. Travelling via Interlaken, we will enjoy the spectacular scenery along the edge of the lake before journeying up through the mountains to Grindelwald, which Turner visited on his first tour in 1802, and where artists and writers have flocked ever since.

Cost Details

Art & Landscape in Switzerland