The new exhibit at this museum, nestled amid parkland above Lausanne, features artists of the Victorian era (1837-1901).
Some sixty works from the UK's greatest museums will be on display until 2 June. Many of them are being shown in Switzerland for the first time. The Tate, the Royal Collection and the Royal Academy of Arts have loaned canvases spanning three generations of artists. All of them worked in the British Isles: from Turner, whose landscapes are the precursors of Impressionism, to Whistler – not forgetting the Pre-Raphaelite movement, most notably represented by Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. These artists focused on a variety of subjects, many of them linked to the upheavals triggered by the Industrial Revolution. They depicted the rise of the cities and of public transport, the emergence of the middle class and also of work undertaken at home. Other painters preferred to disregard these humdrum subjects in favour of landscapes or historic and literary themes.
The Fondation de l'Hermitage occupies a splendid manor surrounded by a park that affords one of the loveliest views of Lausanne. The property's former orangerie houses a restaurant, L'Esquisse, which offers a brasserie menu with entirely fresh ingredients as well as regular theme evenings and brunches, combined with visits to the exhibition.
