GENEVA.- One-of-a-kind auction at the Château of Gingins: For the first time in its history, the Hôtel des Ventes de Genève [Geneva Auction House] has the honor of organizing an auction that will take place outside its offices, in the magnificent setting of the Château of Gingins, Vaud canton. Today, this fifteenth century château is well known because of the Neumann family, who amassed an exceptional collection over 50 years of internationally recognized Art Nouveau, Symbolist, and pre-Raphaelite works of art, as well as antique paintings and furniture.

Next Saturday, April 27, at 10 AM, the entire contents of the château, with an estimated total value of CHF 1 to CHF 1.5 million (EUR 800,000-1,200,000, USD 1.1-1.6 million), will be auctioned off. All 500 lots composing this sale are exclusively from the Neumann family estate, most items with no minimum reserve price, to the highest bidder. Items estimated at CHF 100 can be found next to works dating from the Haute Epoque to Art Nouveau, while paintings from the Old Masters will hang alongside a beautiful set of eighteenth century furniture, and the jewel in its crown, a magnificent dresser marked Hache à Grenoble, estimated at CHF 80,000 – 120,000 (EUR 70,000-100,000; USD 85,000-125,000).

For the three days leading up to the sale, the château and its seven hectares of grounds will be accessible to art lovers. Some visitors were already able to visit the site approximately ten years ago when the Fondation Neumann for Art Nouveau was housed in the renovated stables, before the foundation closed in 2004. This auction is the last and final chance to visit the château in its current condition, the way the owners left it. Visitors will find it a pleasant and distinctive way to while away a few hours following in the footsteps of the lords and ladies who inhabited the château for decades.

Hôtel des Ventes Director and Auctioneer Bernard Piguet tells us, “Over 95 percent of the lots will be sold without reserve, or minimum price, making them accessible for everyone. This is a unique opportunity for all art lovers to come away with a piece of this extraordinary collection.” The owners’ descendants are delighted that the objects they grew up with will find new homes and continue their history. Bernard Piguet adds, “It is a great pleasure and a privilege to have an auction in such a unique setting.”

A Fifteenth Century Château as Backdrop for an Internationally Renowned Collection
In less than two weeks, art lovers will discover the last treasures of the Neumann collection in a fifteenth century castle nestled at the heart of seven hectares with a view of Lake Geneva. The home was built in 1440 for Jean II of Gingins on the site of a former fortified manor which preserves some traces of its medieval past (such as embrasures). The château remained in the hands of the Gingins family for two centuries before changing ownership several times, becoming along the way the property of such famous families as the Quisards or the Wattevilles. It was purchased by the Neumanns in 1962.

By the early 1960s Lotar and Vera Neumann had already acquired a taste for the decorative sophistication of Art Nouveau. Moving to the Château of Gingins injected new energy into their collecting. The couple wanted to revive the château’s large reception rooms by decorating the walls with paintings from the Old Masters and furnishing them with eighteenth century and Art Nouveau pieces, while also adding pre-Raphaelite and Symbolist paintings. In 1994, Vera Neumann (who died in 2013) set up the Fondation Neumann in memory of and as an homage to her husband, who had passed away two years earlier. The foundation’s main goal was to make the collection accessible to the public and to organize luxury art exhibits. The château’s former barn was turned into an exhibit space. It held the Neumanns’ precious collection of Art Nouveau glass, containing some 150 pieces from the greatest master glassblowers of the era, and housed numerous temporary exhibits organized from 1994 until 2004, when the foundation closed. Each exhibit drew large numbers of visitors, with several of the exhibits being shown abroad. The fame of the Fondation Neumann grew quickly, providing it an international reputation as one of the rare institutions in Europe specializing in nineteenth century art.

Today, the Hôtel des Ventes is offering art lovers an opportunity not only to admire works of this collection in their original setting, the rooms of the Château of Gingins, but to purchase one or more of the pieces.

Overview of the Sale
A varied collection of furniture is available in every room of the château. On the ground floor, in the main kitchen near the wine cellar, you will see a fireplace measuring nearly four meters in width. Facing the fireplace are a monastery table, some rustic furniture, copper cookware, and antique faience. In the dining room and in the corridor leading up to it, Renaissance chests sit next to paintings by the Old Masters and Haute Epoque sculptures (fifteenth to sixteenth century). In the drawing room and the first-floor library, we find Art Nouveau furniture mingling with eighteenth century French works of art, interspersed with contemporary sofas and Charles Eames armchairs.

The two largest pieces are the huge rosewood bookcase by Colonna and the extremely rare Louis XV dresser signed Pierre Hache, a genuine museum piece. On the second floor, the bedrooms are furnished in Art Nouveau or contemporary style. A discreet mixing of eras occasionally reveals the eclectic and sophisticated tastes of the owners, who decorated the château according to their whim and their lifestyle.

The Leading Names in Art Nouveau Found at the Château of Gingins

• The Neumann Collection, celebrated for its Art Nouveau glass
Considered one of the undisputed leading lights of Art Nouveau, Emile Gallé heavily influenced the decorative arts around the turn of the century. A master glassblower, he brought a new dimension to the art of glasswork. His technical innovations brought out fine design details and greatly enriched glassmaking. His vases are decorated with ferns, wild berries, or mountain landscapes borrowed from Japanese art, all enhanced by his fine design skills and rich color palette (lot 398 estimated at CHF 8000–12,000, EUR 7000-10,000, USD 8500-12,500; lot 399 estimated at CHF 4000–6000, EUR 3000-5000, USD 4300-6400; lot 385 estimated at CHF 1500–2000, EUR 1200-1600, USD 1600-2100). In addition to Gallé, other members of the School of Nancy used these new techniques. A fine example is Daum and Majorelle’s large bowl in green and violet glass with gold leaf and wrought iron decoration (lot 383 estimated at CHF 4000–6000, EUR 3000-5000, USD 4300-6400). Across the Atlantic, Art Nouveau notions were spread by Louis Comfort Tiffany of New York, who introduced the beauty and mystery of nature into nineteenth century interiors. In the spectacular lamp known as “Green Turtleback”, made by Tiffany Studios, New York (lot 416 estimated at CHF 30,000–50,000, EUR 25,000-40,000, USD 32,000-53,000), plant forms inspired not only the shape of the shade, but the bronze structure at the base of the lamp.

The rich beauty of these glass works reminds us of the more than 150 pieces the Neumanns collected from the most famous Art Nouveau master glassblowers. Many of these items will be auctioned off by the Hôtel des Ventes on April 27 at 2 PM.

• Art Nouveau curves seen in Neumann family collection furniture
While Emile Gallé and Lois Majorelle often used glass to convey their plant-inspired fantasies, wood was another means of expression for them. Remaining loyal to the Art Nouveau philosophy that influenced all areas of everyday life, the two artists created furniture out of wood sculpted into fruit and floral reliefs, such as Louis Majorelle’s fireplace made circa 1900 (lot 352 estimated at CHF 4000–6000, EUR 3000-5000, USD 4300-6400), or with inlays to create a motif of figures and plants, as in the “Winter” chest by Emile Gallé estimated at CHF 6000–8000 (lot 350 EUR 5000-7000, USD 6400-8500).

The April 27 sale will also include a spectacular, five-meter-long Art Nouveau bookcase made by Edouard Colonna out of rosewood and decorated with stylized foliage (lot 347 estimated at CHF 30,000–50,000, EUR 25,000-40,000, USD 32,000-53,000), and a pair of vases by Raoul Larche displaying the full force of this Art Nouveau sculptor’s creative and technical skills (lot 405 estimated at CHF 20,000–30,000, EUR 16,000-25,000, USD 21,300-32,000).

In addition to these works by the grand masters, we should point out that the sale will include many Art Nouveau furniture pieces with very attractive estimates starting at CHF 300, to be sold at any price.

• Art Nouveau and Symbolist graphics from the Neumann Family collection
Art Nouveau advertising posters are a beautiful expression of the style’s influence on the graphic arts. Works by Alphonse Mucha and George de Feure to advertise Salon des Cent exhibits are perfect examples of a lushness that is rarely achieved (lot 464 is estimated at CHF 5000–8000, EUR 4000-7000, USD 5300-8500, lot 445 estimated at CHF 1200–1800, EUR 1000-1400, USD 1300-1900). These artists also gave free rein to their creative muse in Art Nouveau paintings, for example, Woman in a Black Hat and Deux femmes dans un paysage by De Feure (lots 447 and 448 estimated at CHF 5000–8000 each EUR 4000-7000, USD 5300-8500) or Allégorie, subtitled Jeune femme demi-nue au drapé bleu by Mucha (lot 459 estimated at CHF 8000–12,000, EUR 7000-10,000, USD 8500-12,500).

Symbolist paintings are often grouped together with Art Nouveau paintings. So it is not surprising that the Neumann family collection also includes two portraits from the German Symbolist Franz von Stuck (lots 473 and 474 estimated at CHF 25,000–35,000, EUR 20,000-30,000, USD 26,700-37,400).

Old Master Paintings of the Fifteenth and Eighteenth Centuries
Old Master works of the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries are the final component of the Neumann family collection. Flemish and Dutch paintings of the seventeenth century are the highlight of this group. Two still lifes with fruit recall the exquisite way the Northern Schools minutely represented everyday inanimate objects as symbols, an allegory for the brevity of life and for death, scenes of plenty reflecting the economic context, etc. (lot 190 estimated at CHF 40,000–60,000, EUR 30,000-50,000, USD 43,000-64,000; lot 200 estimated at CHF 30,000–50,000, EUR 25,000-40,000, USD 32,000-53,000). An interior scene entitled Jeune famille devant un feu de cheminée by Gonzales Coques (circa 1614–1684), “the little Van Dyck”, according to his contemporaries, is part of the intimist tradition in genre painting (lot 193 estimated at CHF 30,000–50,000, EUR 25,000-40,000, USD 32,000-53,000) while a panoramic landscape by Josse de Momper (1564–1635), dotted with figures painted by Brueghel the Elder (1568–1625), reveals the Luminist talents of this scion of one of the most famous Flemish landscape artist dynasties (lot 209 estimated at CHF 40,000–60,000, EUR 30,000-50,000, USD 43,000-64,000).

Of special note is the Swiss painting from the fifteenth century, an oil painting from the Bern Maître à l’oeillet group (active circa 1490–1500) depicting St. John the Baptist preaching and estimated at CHF 3000–5000 (lot 208 – EUR 2000-4000, USD 3200-5300).