Forever Young – The Langmatt's Most Significant Paintings

Forever Young presents masterpieces of Impressionist painting in the historic villa: before the museum closes for renovation from 2024 to 2025, Forever Young will show around 50 paintings of French Impressionism, one more time. Other important groups of works by Corot and Boudin, Venetian vedute and selected donations by contemporary artists complete the exhibition. The picture gallery presents not only paintings, but also historical furniture, carpets and valuable vases. It conveys a vivid picture of how Sidney and Jenny Brown lived amidst their extraordinary collection.

The exhibition title picks up on the mega-hit of the same name by the Berlin group Alphaville in 1984: a catchy tune that evokes eternal youth and gave rise to numerous cover versions. The Impressionists of Langmatt, however, do not have to conjure up their youth: their immortality and eternal youth consists in their contribution to the historical pioneering achievement of Impressionism, namely, to have paved the way for the Modernism of the 20th century.

The collection of Sidney and Jenny Brown contains all the famous names of Impressionism such as Cézanne, Degas, Gauguin, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir and Sisley. Today, it is one of the most important private collections of French Impressionism in Europe. The Browns amassed most of their collection between 1908 and 1919. At that time, French Impressionism was still contemporary art, controversial in professional circles and met with fierce rejection by the public. Therefore, profit considerations or social prestige could not have played a role. The Browns collected with their heart and followed their personal preferences. Without their knowing it or wanting to, they wrote European art history before other Impressionist collections were established in Switzerland, for example in Winterthur or Zurich.

During the museum's closure period, the collection goes on exhibition tour and is shown by major museums in French-speaking Switzerland, Germany and Austria.

Main picture: Exhibition view Forever Young, 2023, Museum Langmatt