Arts and Culture

The spa town of Baden is very close to Zürich but not often visited by our ZIWA members. The Arts and Culture chairladies, Francesca and Anne, decided to rectify this situation with a visit to the Langmatt Museum last month. Over 20 people were curious to learn more about the old house with its art collection as well as to enjoy a spring day out in the charming town. Local resident and Coffee Corner chairlady Penny was also on hand to show us some of the sights.



After a short train ride, the group convened at Baden station to walk through the park to the villa which was formerly owned by the Brown engineering family. En route, we passed the impressive Casino building which hosts the Baden Coffee Corner every month and where we would later repair for refreshments. Everyone gathered outside the museum, enjoying the sunshine after a long, hard winter. Then our guide, Kamla Zogg, took us on a tour of the house and explained its history. The museum was founded only 20 years ago and would be celebrating its anniversary in May with visits from well-known artists and special events. Before that, the house had been owned by Sidney and Jenny Brown, but was handed over to the city as the family had no grandchildren to continue the line. We learnt more about this intriguing story as we toured the rooms and admired the collection of paintings and period furniture. This turned out to be a surprising pleasure.


The founding father, C.W. Brown, was born in London in 1827 to a religious family and he was a self-taught engineer who pioneered the Maudsley steam engine for the 1851 Festival of Britain exhibition. There he met the Swiss engineering Sulzer brothers, and he decided to move to Winterthur where they collaborated in the development of steam locomotives. One of C.W. Brown's two sons, Charles Eugene Lancelot, followed his father into the family business with local engineer Walter Bovari and together they founded the Brown Bovari company, the forerunner of ABB, which is still based in Baden. They had their own power plant and built a railway to link Baden with Zürich. The younger brother, Sidney Brown, joined the team and in 1900 they moved to Canton Aargau and obtained a license for their own special generator. Sidney Brown married Jenny Sulzer and in 1901 she had the house built.


While Sidney travelled around Asia expanding the business, Jenny Brown established her household in Baden. She was an art lover and tutored painting in Münich where she began to collect German artworks. The house was furnished in the Arts and Crafts style and evoked a restrained, English country house look. Jenny Brown soon extended her taste to the early French Impressionists and her collection of fine works graces the silk-lined walls of the salon, library and dining room which were redecorated in the French style in the 1920s. We admired some works by the Venetian 'Langmatt Master' and small Corot landscapes. We also saw some portraits by Renoir and small works by Mary Cassatt and Paul Cezanne. One particular favourite with the group was an exquisite painting of washerwomen by Boudin which the couple acquired while on honeymoon. Later Jenny also bought works by French artists working at the end of the 19th century such as Pissarro, Cezanne and Monet. Our guide gave us her impressions of the fine works which still grace the finely decorated downstairs walls of the villa, together with a fine display of Chinese ceramics. Sidney and Jenny Brown had three sons but sadly none of them had children, and after Jenny died in 1967, and her son John in 1987, the house was donated to the city and the Landmatt Foundation was established.

After this fascinating tour and insight into the lives of the Browns, we adjourned to the Casino Café for a coffee, before some of the group made a walking tour of the town before returning to Zürich. Thanks to Francesca for arranging this excursion.

You can learn more about the Langmatt Museum at this link: www.langmatt.ch