Ancient and modern art

Although boasting examples of Egyptian and Chinese art and a fine set of medieval sculptures, the museum's collection is founded on the painting of the 18th and 19th centuries. During that period the artists of Switzerland went to live in Rome and Paris to acquire an academic formation and find an outlet for their work. Louis Ducros (477 works), the leading watercolourist of his time, settled in Italy, where his imaginary views of the monuments of Antiquity and his landscapes of South Italy found an enthusiastic public amongst the tourists on the Grand Tour. In the works of Jacques Sablet, the "painter of the sun", the human figure is perfectly integrated in the landscape.

Charles Gleyre (479 works) represents the academic approach to art in the collection. An orientalist, portraitist and history painter, his chosen path fell between Romanticism and Classicism. From 1843 he taught free of charge in his studio in Paris, where he welcomed the future Impressionists Bazille, Monet, Renoir and Sisley, as well as young hopefuls from the Swiss school. The landscapes by Diday, Calame and Corot, and genre scenes by Léopold Robert, Benjamin Vautier and Albert Anker lead to the more important oeuvre of Félix Vallotton (500 works), the lyrical painter of intimate bourgeois scenes. A revolutionary among the Nabis, he heralded the controlled boldness of magic realism. His mature production is represented by his "composed landscapes", which revived the historic landscape painting of Poussin. The painting of Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen (178 works) is reminiscent of Delacroix, Daumier, Doré and Manet. The widespread diffusion of his posters and illustrations in popular periodicals, together with his involvement in libertarian, pacifist culture, made him an important figure at the start of the 20th century.

With the bequest made by Dr Henri-Auguste Widmer, the collection was enriched by Impressionist, Symbolist and Post-Impressionist works at the beginning of the 20th century. Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, Vuillard, Bonnard, Denis, Rodin and Maillol dialogue with the Swiss artists François Bocion, Ernest Biéler, Ferdinand Hodler and Giovanni Giacometti. Cubism, Futurism and the Return to Order are reflected in the works of Alice Bailly, Gustave Buchet and René Auberjonois (125 works). The drawings and paintings of two artists on the fringe – Louis Soutter (596 works) and Aloïse – supplement the avant-garde works. Soutter, who trained both musically and artistically, escaped from his confinement in old people's home, where he was kept against his will, through the creation of thousands of drawings which reflect the contribution of his personal genius to the history of the art of his time.