Van Gogh, Hodler and a Cabriolet

She was one of Switzerland’s foremost art collectors, a passionate photographer, mountaineer, and driver of motorcars, and she modeled for Ferdinand Hodler: the Kunstmuseum Basel presents the first extensive exhibition dedicated to Gertrud Dübi-Müller (1888–1980). Around eighty works by renowned artists from her international collection, arresting photographs, and previously unpublished documents shed light on Dübi-Müller’s life and reveal her influential role in the history of art and culture.

Gertrud Dübi-Müller was first exposed to art at a young age when she took painting lessons from Cuno Amiet and subsequently struck up friendships with artists including Ferdinand Hodler and Giovanni Giacometti. Having lost her parents, she was financially independent early on. Barely 20, she bought Vincent van Gogh’s painting Portrait of Charles-Elzéard Trabuc, the cornerstone of what would grow into a singular collection of modern art.

The self-confident native of Solothurn, who complemented her great passion for art and photography with penchants for driving in car races and fashionable millinery, inspired many creative minds. Dübi-Müller especially cherished her friendship with Hodler, who immortalized her in seventeen portraits; for example, she posed for the large-format painting Blick ins Unendliche (View into Infinity, 1913/14–1916), which is in the Kunstmuseum Basel’s collection.

Dübi-Müller’s photo camera recorded not only the lives of her artist friends but also her own adventures, including mountain hikes, rides on dirigibles, and travels throughout Europe and to North Africa. Driving one of the first cars of the Swiss brand Pic-Pic, she often visited the capitals of the European arts scene and crisscrossed the Swiss Alps. Her accomplishments as a mountaineer, including ascents of the Matterhorn and the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau, underscore her extraordinary independence for a woman of her time and set her apart as a remarkable personality whose life and dedication to the arts remain an inspiration today.

The exhibition Van Gogh, Hodler, and a Cabriolet showcases outstanding works by international artists including Paul Cezanne, Vincent van Gogh, and Gustav Klimt as well as eminent Swiss artists including Cuno Amiet, Alice Bailly, Giovanni Giacometti, and Ferdinand Hodler. In addition to the works from the Dübi-Müller Foundation and the Josef Müller Foundation at the Kunstmuseum Solothurn, it also features works provided by private lenders that were formerly in Dübi-Müller’s collection. Photographs, previously unpublished letters, hand-painted postcards, and other archival materials that artists and creative professionals sent to Dübi-Müller provide intimate insight into her network.