The Emil Bührle Collection

Paul Cézanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, and many others—between 1936 and 1956 the Swiss industrialist Emil Bührle (1890–1956) amassed an impressive collection of French Impressionism and more. As the owner of the largest weapons factory in his country, he had close links to the world-changing events of World War II and the early Cold War. Initially, Bührle acquired works almost exclusively in Switzerland; then, from 1951 onward, he rapidly expanded his collection, thanks in part to his business contacts in the United States. This book illustrates the colorful history of the Bührle collection, which includes a total of 633 works, and examines its importance to modern art collections in Germany, Switzerland, and the United States. The survey is complemented by contributions from a number of authors who reflect on seventy masterpieces in the collection, from the old masters to Picasso.