Chronology of the collection

Cuno Amiet, Nelkenbukett, 1916; bought from the artist. It is the first picture and is today still in the collection. From then on Cuno Amiet and Karl Im Obersteg were united in a lifelong friendship. In April of the same year the exhibition “Neuere Kunst aus Basler Privatsammlungen” took place in the Kunsthalle Basel, which may very well have reinforced the young business man’s desire to collect modern art.

Cuno Amiet, Der Klavierspieler (Hans Münch), 1917; bought from the artist. In 1938 Karl Im Obersteg donated the painting to the Society of Friends of the Kunstmuseum Basel.

Cuno Amiet, Der Cellospieler (Lorenz Lehr), 1919; bought from the artist, 1938 sold. Since 1988 at Stiftung für Kunst, Kultur + Geschichte, Winterthur.

Alexej von Jawlensky, Grosse Variation, 1915 and Stillleben, 1915; bought in Ascona from the artist. The two are the first works that Karl Im Obersteg bought from Jawlensky. Up to his death (1969) the collector assembled 30 of his works, which make up in quantity and quality the most significant Jawlensky collection in Switzerland ever put together during the artist’s lifetime.

Ferdinand Hodler, Bildnis Régina Morgeron, 1911; purchased. In 1919, a year after Hodler’s death, an exhibition in his memory took place that Im Obersteg most probably had seen.