Villa Flora, Art museum in Winterthur, Switzerland
Villa Flora is an art museum housed in a historic residence with multiple galleries displaying paintings by European artists from the late 1800s and early 1900s. The collection includes works by artists such as Pierre Bonnard, Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Ferdinand Hodler, and Henri Matisse.
The villa was built in 1846 and belonged to Hedy Hahnloser-Bühler's family from 1856. After her 1898 marriage to ophthalmologist Arthur Hahnloser, the couple assembled a post-impressionist collection from 1905 to 1936. The house became a museum in 1995, closed in 2014, and reopened on 22 March 2024 as part of Kunst Museum Winterthur.
The collection grew from the friendship between Hedy and Arthur Hahnloser and artists such as Félix Vallotton, Henri Manguin, Pierre Bonnard and Henri Matisse, whose works they bought directly from the painters. Hedy, trained in drawing in St. Gallen and briefly in Munich, also designed furniture, cushions and toys in her studio here. Some nudes on the walls made parents forbid their children to visit the house.
The museum is located in a quiet residential area and is accessible by public transport. Visitors should check ahead for current opening hours and admission details, as the space periodically undergoes updates and maintenance.
The garden holds two life-size bronze figures by Aristide Maillol, not a Pomona. Inside, the salon designed in 1908 by Rittmeyer/Furrer in Jugendstil style, with its original furniture and lamps, was shown at the first Zurich exhibition of interior design and survives fully intact.
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