Contented Van Gogh placed on market by Swiss art magnates

A well-chosen art collection is a work of art itself; it has integrity and takes the pulse of an era. Such a collection is that of Dr. Arthur and Frau Hedy Hahnloser. The couple founded the Villa flora museum in Winterthur, with the works of great artists such as Rodin, Renoir, Cézanne, Toulouse-Lautrec, Matisse and also Van Gogh gathering one of the choicest private hoards of post-impressionist art in the world. On the 7th of March a piece of this magnificent collection was placed on the market.
For the first time in more than 90 years one of Van Gogh’s latest and most acclaimed works is to go on sale. L’Enfant a’ l’orange (The child with the orange) belongs to a set of child portraits produced a month before his suicide which radiates the optimism and purity of youth. These are, notably different from the angst ridden material he produced in his latest years. Surely moving to Arles’, France, with its picturesque scene and seeing his nephew Vincent were important catalysts for the sudden explosion of energy and creativity during the last days of Van Gogh’s life. Emma Ward from the art dealer Dickinson, responsible for the sale of the painting, describes it thus: "It's a very cheerful painting. You see a small boy with long blonde hair and blue eyes. He's sitting in a field with yellow flowers, and wearing a blue jacket. In his hands he's holding an orange."
Hans Hahnloser and Frau Lisa Jaggli-Hahnloser, the heirs of Arthur and Hedy, placed the portrait for by auction at the European Fine Art Fair in Maastricht for £15.3m. The proceeds from the sale will go entirely to a children’s charity.
Van Gogh’s fascination with the baby son of a local carpenter as well for his enthusiasm about modern painting inspired this painting. In a letter to his sister Wilhelmina Van Gogh declares “ What I am most passionately engaged in - far, far more than the others of my craft - is the portrait, the modern portrait."
The portrait of the young boy with an orange didn't form part of the museum's collection. It hung in the owners' house, though it was regularly displayed in museums, according to an older and somewhat reticent inhabitant of Winterthur.
Arthur Hahnloser had bought the painting from widow Johanna Van Gogh, Vincent’s sister in law, in 1916 and it has been in the family since then. Although the Hahnlosers were not rich, initially, they bought contemporary art steadily until the walls barely showed through the paintings. By 1924, buying most of the paintings directly from artists, they owned Renoirs, Bonnards, Vuillards, Vallottons, Cezannes, Manguins, Hod-lers, Rodins, Maillols, Redons, Matisses, Rouaults, Utrillos, and just about every other French or Swiss artist that mattered at the time.

Soon, the collectors became passionate supporters of artists to whom their taste led them. Many of them were frequent guests at the Hahnlosers' winter home in Cannes. Swiss artists, professors and writers gathered weekly in the living room of the Villa Flora, where, surrounded by Van Goghs and Cezannes, they debated art with such fervour that the meetings were called "Revolution
Cafe." Indeed, the little magazine of anarchism called Revue Blanche was a polemical ally of the kind of art that the Hahnlosers loved.
Though the Herr Doktor paid for it, Hedy Hahnloser was the umpire of the collection. With her high-minded Swiss upbringing, she disapproved of the fast life of girls and powerful cars that Matisse enjoyed. Since every great collection has to end, just as a great painting must reach completion at some point, the Hahnlosers finally ran out of zealous vision. One day in the 1920s, the young Picasso rang at their gate in Cannes. Hedy sent down her last word with her maid: "I'm not at home for him. Never!"