Société des amis du musée des beaux-arts collection
Société des amis du musée des beaux-arts collection
The Société des amis des arts (SAA, Society of Friends of the Museum, now SaMba) played a major role in establishing the museum’s core collection. Until the mid-twentieth century, the SAA largely acquired works by painters local to La Chaux-de-Fonds and across Switzerland, building a representative collection. It includes a significant number of École du gris canvases from La Chaux-du-Fonds and works from the Nouvelle Objectivité school that developed under the Barraud brothers.
After the Second World War, the curator Paul Seylaz expanded the collection beyond its regional parameters, acquiring some Italian and French works and opening the collection to works characteristic of Swiss and European abstraction.
The SaMba collection now represents 2,266 of the 6,868 works in the museum’s overall holdings and is constantly growing. SaMba maintains its tradition of supporting artists by acquiring works, often after its own contemporary art biennial.
The hanging of the rooms of the collections is regularly modified, if you wish to see one or several works in particular, please contact the museum to inform you if they are currently exhibited in the rooms.
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, dit Le Corbusier, «Ozon III», 1962
Natural wood (iroko) partially painted and metal, 78 × 80 × 44 cm
Louis Léopold Robert, «Marinier napolitain avec une jeune fille à l’île d’Ischia», 1825
Oil on canvas, 74 × 64.5 cm
Charles L’Eplattenier, «Au sommet (Mont-Racine)», 1904
Oil on canvas, 74 × 175 cm
Aimé Barraud, «L’estampe japonaise», circa 1930
Oil on canvas, 46 × 64.5 cm
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, known as Le Corbusier, «Femme assise (La femme au peignoir)», 1933
Oil on canvas, 91 × 71.5 cm
Madeleine Woog, «Masques», undated
Oil on canvas, 50 × 61 cm
Claude Loewer, «Ardoise», 1973
Oil on canvas, 92 × 73 cm
Édouard Kaiser, «Les barons (Fondeurs d’or)», 1905
Oil on canvas, 125.5 × 159.5 cm
Édouard Vallet, «Le four à chaux», 1924
Oil on canvas, 125 × 115 cm
Jenny Eckhardt, «Portrait de Julia Nicolet», circa 1848-1849
Oil on canvas, 25 × 20.5 cm
Alice Bailly, «Fête étrange (Les trouvères)», 1918?
Oil on canvas, 152 × 142 cm
Charles-Auguste Humbert, «La parure», 1936
Oil on canvas, 150 × 110 cm
Charles Barraud, «Mélancolie», 1936
Oil on canvas, 160 × 115 cm
Charles-Auguste Humbert, «Fenêtre de l’atelier», 1937
Oil on canvas, 73 × 50 cm
Ferdinand Hodler, «Guerrier de marignan», Undated (1896)
Oil and tempera on canvas, 196 × 154 cm