Oskar Reinhart
Oskar Reinhart was a Swiss art collector and patron from Winterthur. After a career in the family’s trading business, he devoted himself to building a collection of European art with a focus on French Impressionism and Swiss painting. His collections, today housed at the Museum Oskar Reinhart am Stadtgarten and the Römerholz estate, are open to the public.
Biography
Oskar Reinhart was born in Winterthur on 11 June 1885, the son of Theodor Reinhart, a cotton merchant who established the family’s tradition of cultural patronage. He belonged to a prominent Winterthur family that in the 18th century held leading positions as councillors and judges, and from the 19th century was active in overseas trade, particularly in cotton.After studying in Lausanne, Reinhart entered the family trading firm, training in London in 1907 and working in India from 1909 to 1911. From 1912 to 1924 he was a co-owner of the business.
In 1909 he spent time in Berlin, a formative period for his interest in art, during which he came into contact with Julius Meier-Graefe. Following these influences, Reinhart gave French Impressionists a central place in his acquisitions, while also collecting earlier European masters he viewed as precursors to Impressionism, as well as German and Swiss art.
In 1920 he founded the Clubhouse Zur Geduld in Winterthur, which was decorated by Karl Walser and Henry Bischoff. After leaving business in 1924, he devoted himself entirely to collecting art. His collection at his residence Am Römerholz included European paintings from the 14th to early 20th centuries, as well as sculptures, and he later bequeathed it to the Swiss Confederation.
He donated the Oskar Reinhart Foundation, a study collection of Swiss and Austrian works from the 18th to 20th centuries, to the city of Winterthur. It opened in 1951 as the Museum Oskar Reinhart am Stadtgarten.
Reinhart served on the Swiss Federal Art Commission from 1933 to 1938 and received honorary doctorates from the University of Basel and the University of Zurich. He died in Winterthur on 16 September 1965.