GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

 

 

 

 

Son of doctor Louis-André Gosse (Geneva, 1791-Geneva, 1873) and Blanche Victorine Cécile Le Texier (?, 1813-Bourg-en-Bresse, 1893), Hippolyte Gosse studied in Paris, where he obtained his doctorate in 1863. Returning to Geneva, he practiced medicine and married Marie Kossikovsky (Saint-Petersburg, 1849-Geneva, 1892) in 1872. From this union was born their daughter Élisabeth Tatiana Gosse (Geneva, 1876-Geneva, 1963). Hippolyte Gosse was appointed professor of forensic medicine in Geneva in 1875 and held this position until his death in 1901. Simultaneously, Hippolyte Gosse was involved in the political life of the city of Geneva: he was an independent deputy in the Grand Council as well as an administrative councilor of the executive for many years. However, it is his passion for archaeology, history, culture, and art that cemented his memory in Geneva and in Switzerland. Hippolyte Gosse directed the Musée archéologique and the Musée épigraphique of Geneva from 1872 and was also appointed curator of the Salle des armures (ill. 3.) at the city's Musée d'art et d'histoire (click here for more info).

 

 

 

 

Passionate about archaeology, Hippolyte Gosse also collected various historical objects. He donated several items to the city of Geneva: some are now in the Musée épigraphique, but the majority of the donation significantly enriched the collections of the Musée d'art et d'histoire de Genève. For instance, we can mention the remarkable fragment of papyrus dating around 1090 BC, donated in 1874 (inv. D407), the magnificent amphora made in Attica, Greece around 550 BC, donated in 1868 (inv. I4; ill. 5.), and the small oscillum sculpted in low relief in Orange during the 1st century and given by Hippolyte Gosse to the Musée d'art et d'histoire de Genève in 1886 (inv. C1072). The Salle des armures of the museum, of which Hippolyte Gosse was the curator, was also enriched thanks to his numerous donations.

 

 

The collection of portraits that Hippolyte Gosse amassed is unique and particularly impressive, with no less than 3'350 artworks, according to literature. Among these, we mention a Portrait of a man (Robert Dunant?) by Robert Gardelle (Geneva, 1692-Geneva, 1766), a painting that appears hanging on the collector's wall in an old photograph (ill. 6. | ill. 7.), and we also mention the Portrait of Pastor Jean-Pierre du Maine painted by Jean-Étienne Liotard (Geneva, 1702-Geneva, 1789) in 1721 (ill. 8.). This work by Liotard holds particular interest in the painter's work as it is "premier portrait documenté signé et daté exécuté à Genève" (M. Roethlisberger & R. Loche, Liotard. Catalogue, sources et correspondance, Antwerp, 2008, vol. I, cat. n° 4, p. 234-235).

 

 

 

Among the portraits in the Gosse collection, the engraved portraits of Calvin have left a strong impression and have been studied in several articles; Hippolyte Gosse had begun to gather several of these portraits, a task later continued by his son-in-law, Dr. Hector Maillart (Geneva, 1866-Geneva, 1932). In Emile Doumergue's work, Iconographie calvinienne (Lausanne, G. Bridel, 1909), Hector Maillart wrote an entire appendix on the collection: "Catalogue des portraits gravés de Calvin". Besides these engraved portraits, Hippolyte Gosse possessed numerous paintings and drawings, primarily by artists from Geneva but also by foreign artists. All the most recognized Geneva artists' names are present in the collection: Jean-Étienne Liotard, Jean-Pierre Saint-Ours, Jacques-Laurent Agasse, Alexandre Calame, Wolfgang-Adam and Rodolphe Töpffer, or Joseph Burdallet, to name just a few. According to Danielle Plan (1902), the Gosse-Maillart collection was also rich in works by several foreign masters, such as François Boucher or Antoine Watteau for French artists, Mantegna and Antonio Allegri da Correggio, known as Correggio, or Annibale Carracci for the Italians. Among the French artists, we mention not only several drawings and counterproofs by Carle van Loo, including this exquisite signed drawing of God the Father blessing, but also the rediscovery of the magnificent drawing of a Figure of a male with drapery and his arm raised, by Charles de la Fosse. Hippolyte Gosse's interest in artworks was not solely artistic; the collector enjoyed acquiring pieces of a more intellectual nature, such as the Project for Charles Bonnet's tomb by Jean-Pierre Saint-Ours (ill. 9.), which demonstrates an interest in local history and a refined taste for more original works.

 

 

Furthermore, the provenance of this collection is a key aspect of its historical value. Among the works we present here, all have remained within the same family until today, and the provenance of some pieces can even be traced back to the artist. Such artworks include drawings by Wolfgang-Adam Töpffer, of which only one is still available, Cart loaded with branches, and two very interesting drawings attributed to Catherine Saint-Ours, Jean-Pierre Saint-Ours' daughter. The two drawings attributed to Catherine Saint-Ours that we present here (Study of five antique faces of men, c. 1850, and Study of six antique faces of men, c. 1850) were most probably given by the artist to her sister Fanny Saint-Ours and then given by her to Hippolyte Gosse. Other particularly interesting works include the Hermit praying drawn by Abraham Bouvier most certainly in 1825 (ill. 10.), realized as a preparatory study for an engraving of the same subject by the same artist. This drawing copies a (now lost) painting by Gérard Dou which was previously in the art collection of François Duval in Geneva and therefore giving us important clues on the history of the collections of the city of Geneva.

 

 

Hippolyte Gosse bequeathed his collection to his daughter Élisabeth; in 1900, she married Dr. Hector Maillart, who continued the family's collection, focusing mainly on Calvinist portraits. Élisabeth and Hector Maillart had two daughters, Noémi Maillart (Geneva, 1902-Geneva, 1977), who became Boissonnas, and Claire Maillart (Geneva, 1905-Geneva, 1997), who became Goldschmid. Some works, including the Portrait of a Man (Robert Dunant?) by Robert Gardelle and the Portrait of Pastor Jean-Pierre du Maine by Jean-Étienne Liotard, seem to have passed from one sister to the other, but Claire Maillart received the majority of the works on paper. In 1971, she donated or sold several drawings to the Musée d'art et d'histoire de Genève, and in 2008, her heirs donated a few more works to the museum. Thus, several drawings by Jean-Pierre Saint-Ours, Jacques-Laurent Agasse, or Wolfgang-Adam Töpffer joined the collections of the Musée d'art et d'histoire. Among these, we mention the magnificent Portrait of a Bearded Man, Three-Quarter View to the Right, by Jacques-Laurent Agasse (inv. BA2008-201), the study by Jean-Pierre Saint-Ours representing The Last Moments of Charles Bonnet (inv. BA2008-218), and the Landscape Study with Water Wheels by Wolfgang-Adam Töpffer (inv. BA2008-235).

 

In 1985, Claire Maillart lent almost the entirety of her collection to the Musée d'art et d'histoire de Genève. Of the twenty-seven works we present, only the Portrait of a Man (Robert Dunant?) by Robert Gardelle had not joined the collections of the Musée d'art et d'histoire de Genève. The other twenty-six works have all been preserved, studied, and sometimes exhibited by the Cabinet d'arts graphiques of the Musée d'art et d'histoire de Genève. The vast majority of the attributions we propose here are drawn from the inventories established by the Musée d'art et d'histoire, which attributed each work partly under the advice of expert Anne de Herdt, who was well acquainted with Claire Maillart and knew of the drawings in this collection before their arrival at the museum.