FONDATION
DE L’HERMITAGE
Hilltop Art Museum of Lausanne
The
Foundation de L’Hermitage, the hilltop art museum in Lausanne will celebrate
its 30th Anniversary in 2016 and it will be 175 years in the history of
its home. In 1841, Swiss banking innovator Charles-Juste Bugnion acquired
The Hermitage Estate hillside with a magnificent view of Lake Geneva and
the old town cathedral spire, which had been the subject of several well
known paintings by impressionist artist Camille Corot. The mansion Bugnion
had built, designed by architect Louis Wenger took almost seven years to
complete, including the landscaping of the park surrounding the house with
rare species of trees from around the world. The descendants of the original
owner donated to the historic villa to the City of Lausanne in 1976 with
a part of the surrounding grounds, with a private foundation to keep the
mansion for housing temporary exhibitions. The Foundation L’Hermitage
was inaugurated in 1984.
Two or three
temporary exhibitions per year are presented at the L’Hermitage
primarily devoted to modern, impressionist and expressionist art. The museum
has collected close to 800 works made up of mostly donations and bequests
of its own with a selection presented in the museum at rotating intervals.
Outside museums and private collectors have entrusted the foundation with
major collections. Among the donations are major examples of impressionist
and post-impressionist painters – Alfred Sisly, Edgar Degas, George
Braque, Eugene Boudin and Guillaumin and a selection of 20th Century Swiss
artists from the Vaudois – Chavanne, Valltton, Bosshard.
One room of the mansion remains as it was in the 19th Century when occupied
by the banker Bugnion and his family, with original furnishings and family
portraits for a look back to its origins as a private home. On the opposite
end of the scale the entrance to the Hermitage Foundation museum is the
very modern glass enclosed reception hall, connected to the mansion by
an enclosed walk with the museum bookshop offering a large selection of
art books, postcards and reproductions.
A collections of Chinese Porcelain dating from the 12th to 19th Centuries
is on display in the underground gallery passage which links the museum
with the Hermitage farmhouse where educational workshops, lectures, seminars
and music concerts are held. The museum offers Art and Gastronomy Evenings
with a meal and guided tours and Art and Brunch Sundays, though the lectures
are in French.
The park surrounding
the mansion is open to the general public for walks among its rich variety
of shady trees,
many picked out by the original
owner’s wife, Jeanne-Marie who took charge of the park. The broad
esplanade lawn between the house and the lake view vista attracts sun loungers
in pleasant weather. The former orangerie of the mansion built in 1857
in English faux Tudor revival style originally meant to shield the mansion
from the farm buildings now houses the museum’s Café-Restaurant
with an outdoor terrace
Visiting the Foundation L’Hermitage Lausanne
The Foundation
L’Hermitage is open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10 am
to 6 pm, Thursdays from 10 am to 9 pm. Admission is a bit pricy, 18 CHF
for adults, 15 CHF from Seniors and 7 CHF for Students, though a bargain
for young people under 18 who in free. It used to be you’d get a
fake ID to seem older. To get to the L’Hermitage by public transportation,
from the main station take the No. 3 Bus to the Mott Stop. From the Place
Saint-François in the center of town take the No. 16 or 8. From
the old town catch the Number 16 bus at the Pierre Viret bus stop below
the Cathedral - one of the few bus stops named for the founder of a religion.
By car follow the signs to the Bois de Sauvabelin woods, there is a car
park at the Place des Fêtes across the street. © Bargain
Travel Europe
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Fondation
de L'Hermitage
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SEE
ALSO:
MUSEE D' L’ELYSEE - PHOTOGRAPHY MUSEUM
STEAMER CRUISING ON LAKE GENEVA
