A gorgeous exhibition to warm the heart. Lower Belvedere presents highlights from the Museum Langmatt collection of works by the French impressionists.
- Filled with famous names
- Rare chance to see this prestigious private collection
- Over 60 paintings
- Runs Sept 25, 2025 – Feb 8, 2026
- Book Lower Belvedere tickets*
- See also:
Villa to Museum to Vienna
(Pierre-Auguste Renoir, The Braid, c. 1886/1887; Museum Langmatt, Stiftung Langmatt Sidney and Jenny Brown, Baden, Switzerland; press photo courtesy of the museum)
Wander into the small town of Baden in the Swiss canton of Aargau, and you find, for example, the ruins of Castle Stein: built over a thousand years ago.
You also find a Jugendstil villa constructed around 1900 for the industrialist Sidney Brown and his wife Jenny Brown-Sulzer.
While most of us content ourselves with kindergarten pictures by the kids and a generic framed poster from IKEA, the Browns had higher aspirations.
Beginning in the very late 19th century, the pair accumulated a collection of what was then largely contemporary art. And they did so with a gift for artistic foresight, spotting talent, and taking the right advice.
Most importantly, the couple shifted from an early focus on German secessionist works to the French impressionists.
Imagine the scene: the Brown’s take a trip to Paris soon after the start of the new century and return home with a work by Gauguin, one by Monet and several by a certain Paul Cézanne.
(Claude Monet, Ice Floes at Twilight, 1893; Museum Langmatt, Stiftung Langmatt Sidney and Jenny Brown, Baden, Switzerland; press photo courtesy of the museum)
It certainly beats a plastic Eiffel tower and a postcard of the Jardin des Tuileries.
The couple’s subsequent acquisition efforts – conducted at considerable expense – would result in a remarkably comprehensive and representative collection of French impressionist art.
You can view that collection (which expanded to include other media and eras, such as antique porcelain) in the former family villa.
Except you can’t.
What is now Museum Langmatt is temporarily closed for renovation work. This is, however, good news for visitors to Vienna, as the museum has kindly allowed Lower Belvedere to show highlights from the collection in their Cézanne, Monet, Renoir exhibition.
The quality is quite breathtaking. You won’t normally see such a selection outside the world’s most prestigious art museums.
(Paul Cézanne, Trees and Rocks in the Park of the Château Noir, c. 1904; Museum Langmatt, Stiftung Langmatt Sidney and Jenny Brown, Baden, Switzerland; press photo courtesy of the museum)
For example, that small oil painting of Rome? Just a Degas.
And that innocent postcard-sized portrait? Renoir.
Talking Renoir…such a resonant name in art history. And you find yourself confronted by 22 of his works in the exhibition.
Corot and Cézanne. Boudin and Bonnard. Pissarro. Monet. Sisley. Gauguin…what a treat!
The intensity of the collection and the broadly chronological layout also allows intriguing comparisons between artists and styles.
And, as a nice extra touch, we also see selected receipts and correspondence from the times when the works were purchased: a reminder that the greats of the past were once upcoming contemporary artists.
Dates, tickets & tips
Delve into the artistic flair of Museum Langmatt’s collection between September 25th, 2025 and February 8th, 2026. An entrance ticket from or for Lower Belvedere includes the exhibition.
(Booking service provided by Tiqets.com*, who I am an affiliate of)
As if that wasn’t highlight enough for autumn and winter at Belvedere, the same location also has an exhibition around Franz Messerschmidt’s fascinating baroque sculptures (October 31st, 2025 to April 6th, 2026): a real joy if you’re not familiar with them.
And wider Vienna has more French impressionism to offer, as revealed in the title of the Albertina’s permanent exhibition: Monet to Picasso. The displays include impressionist and post-impressionist works by some of the names mentioned above.
How to get there
I have a whole directions page for the Belvedere complex. But the lower palace is best reached on the 71 tram that skirts the north, west, and southwest of Vienna’s old town. Or simply walk down from the centre.
Once inside, head for the orangery to find the exhibition.
Address: Rennweg 6, 1030 Vienna