The friendship with Pierre Bonnard
The Hahnloser couple had a long-standing and very personal friendship with Pierre Bonnard. Hedy and Arthur were often in Paris, where they visited the artist in his studio; later they often met on the Côte d'Azur. They celebrated New Year's Eve together, went for walks and discussed art and private matters – Arthur and Hedy experienced many happy times, but also some difficult ones, with Bonnard and his wife Marthe.
Pierre Bonnard drawing. This photo belongs to the Hahnloser/Jaeggli Foundation archive and was probably taken by Arthur or Hedy.
The Hahnlosers probably met Pierre Bonnard through Vallotton in Paris in the early 1910s, but certainly got to know each other better in Winterthur in 1916, when the opening of the new Kunstmuseum Winterthur was celebrated with the "Exhibition of French Painting". An entire delegation from the Parisian art scene travelled to Winterthur for the occasion, including art dealer Ambroise Vollard and Pierre Bonnard. Together with other guests of honour, they were accommodated in the Villa Flora. Bonnard stayed in daughter Lisa's room, who had to make do with an attic room for the time. The Hahnlosers attached great importance to hospitality and pampered their guests to the utmost. During this time, everyone got to know each other and a close friendship developed with Pierre Bonnard in particular.
The artist later wrote to them: "I often think with affection of your charming interior, where I spent a wonderful time. I hope to rediscover it one day, but life is so complicated at the moment that we no longer dare to leave our home, where we can more or less manage." That was 1918, and the war was still raging.
Pierre Bonnard, La carafe provençale (Marthe Bonnard et son chien Ubu), 1915
Kunst Museum Winterthur, Hahnloser/Jaeggli Stiftung
Foto: Reto Pedrini, Zürich
On Bonnard's first visit to Winterthur in 1916, the collector couple approached the artist with a large commission. The Hahnlosers had already built up a substantial group of Bonnard's works and wanted to expand this with, among other things, a painting specifically created for an entire room wall. The French artist accepted the commission and executed a huge work called Été. Unfortunately, you will look in vain for it in the Flora today, because due to a misunderstanding Bonnard created a painting of the wrong size, which was never installed in the Flora.
Despite this unfortunate outcome, they remained in friendly contact and began a lively correspondence. They discussed all sorts of things, art and private matters, food and travel. Bonnard, who liked to travel frequently, described his respective sojourns and the local weather.
Gathered here at the Villa Pauline in Cannes, from left to right: Pierre Bonnard, Arthur Hahnloser, Marthe Bonnard and Hedy Hahnloser. Also in the picture are the dogs Flac and Plumi.
The Hahnlosers continued to collect Bonnard's art, not only paintings but also prints, which soon found their way into Flora by the dozen. It was often their artist friends Vallotton and Manguin, who lived in Paris and were well-versed in the art trade, who procured Bonnard's works for them or bought them on their behalf. The very first painting by Bonnard that came to the Villa Flora was purchased by Félix Vallotton. In 1909, he bought the painting L'Orage à Vernouillet from 1908 from Bernheim-Jeune on their behalf on the last day of the exhibition. "I very much hope that it will not disappoint your expectations," he wrote to Winterthur, "and that you will appreciate it without reservation as soon as you have become accustomed to this subtle art." It did indeed take a while to get used to it, but just a few years later the Hahnlosers were such enthusiastic fans of Bonnard that they wrote to Vallotton saying he could buy prints from him without consultation, "even duplicates, Bühler will gladly take the rest". Apparently they had also spread their enthusiasm to Richard Bühler in the meantime.
Arthur Hahnloser and Pierre Bonnard together on the sledge
Photo editing: Beat Loosli Solutions & Photos
Later, the Hahnloser couple were among the first to see Bonnard's newest paintings: "Every spring, when he assembled the collection to show at his dealer's annual presentation, we were allowed to see everything and study it to our heart's content. This was le jour du vernissage des Hahnloser," Hedy Hahnloser recalled.
Hedy and Arthur were also frequent guests in Bonnard's Paris studio, where they were able to look over the artist's shoulders. "Canvases of all sizes were pinned to the walls with drawing pins," Hedy wrote, describing the studio. "Not just unequal in size, but above all cut in a very messy and non-geometric way, which made it very difficult to frame them later. There were paintings that could be brought into a rectangle only by attaching the missing strip with a sewing machine. [...] The various motifs hung next to and on top of each other, very dark, gloomy landscapes next to still lifes in the brightest sunlight, compositions with small figures next to a large-format portrait head."
Marthe Bonnard and her husband Pierre Bonnard, together with Hedy Hahnloser and their son Hans in front of their Villa Pauline in Cannes, 1923 or 1924
Photo editing: Beat Loosli Solutions & Photos
In the 1920s and 1930s, after the Hahnlosers had bought the Villa Pauline near Cannes, they spent much of their time – mostly in the winter – on the Côte d'Azur. Bonnard and his partner Marthe travelled frequently in the south of France, living initially in various rented villas until they purchased a house in Le Cannet near Cannes in 1925. Thus they saw each other regularly, ate together and went on excursions. These visits were a welcome change for Bonnard, as his wife Marthe suffered increasingly from mental and physical problems that made social contact difficult. Arthur, calm and prudent, offered his painter friend medical advice and had many conversations with him about Marthe's state of health – and Pierre's own emotional condition. However, as we know from Hedy's notes, Bonnard always prevented Marthe from being admitted to a sanatorium at the last minute. Only he knew the reasons for this.
Consequently, the Hahnlosers and Bonnard experienced a great deal together, many beautiful but also sad moments. We know of the terrible suicide of one of Bonnard's short-term mistresses and of his secret wedding to Marthe, to which no one was invited. But they also celebrated events together, and photographs show how they went sledging together. Highs and lows – a real friendship.
Bonnard and Marthe at a New Year's Eve party at Hahnlosers