Sammlung Oskar Reinhart 'Am Römerholz'

Oskar Reinhart was the descendant of a dynasty of traders from Winterthur. His father, Theodor Reinhart (1849–1919), ran the family firm of Volkart Brothers, which had been established by his wife’s side of the family, and was responsible for developing strong trading links between India and the company. The firm was one of the first businesses in Switzerland, or indeed in Europe, to do so. In keeping with the economic life of Winterthur, which had traditionally been dominated by the textile industry, the company concentrated on the cotton trade.

Apart from his business, Theodor’s main interest was art. Oskar Reinhart was privileged to grow up among the young Swiss and German artists for whom his father acted as patron. It was not until 1924, when he was thirty-nine, that Oskar was able to fulfil his dream of becoming a full-time art collector when he left the family business.

In the same year he purchased the Villa ‘Am Römerholz’ as both a place of residence and a home for the art collection that he had built up over the last few years. Holding true to his wish to use his art collection for the benefit of the public, he donated, as early as 1940, his collection of eighteenth- to twentieth-century German, Swiss and Austrian art to the city of Winterthur. Since 1951 these works have been on display at the Museum Oskar Reinhart am Stadtgarten. In 1958 he made a will bequeathing the remaining part of his collection and the Villa ‘Am Römerholz’ to the Swiss nation. The collection was opened to the public in 1970.

The collection comprises around 200 works of European art dating from the fourteenth to the early twentieth centuries. The principal strength of the collection is French painting of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, supplemented by individual examples of earlier art.