καιρός remembered

Bührle

In the run-up to World War II, the artist Oskar Kokoschka, declared ‘degenerate’ by the Nazis, fled from his native Austria to Czechoslovakia. He was then forced to emigrate to England, where, among other things, he created several anti-fascist paintings during the war.

At the same time, the German arms manufacturer and dealer Bührle did such good business with the Nazi regime from his residence in Switzerland that by the end of the war he could call himself the richest man in the country.

Being the important art collector that he also was, Bührle left 663 works of art at his death in 1956, some of which have been donated on permanent loan to the Kunsthaus Museum in Zurich. Among them is the portrait of Bührle painted by Kokoschka in 1951/52. After all his wanderings, what inspired Kokoschka to accept this commission before settling in Switzerland a year later?

Photos of the week: Oskar Kokoschka, portrait of Emil Bührle, 1951/’52, Sammlung Emil Bührle, and: Emil Bührle surrounded by part of his art collection (1954), photo of a photo, Kunsthaus, Zürich, Switzerland 2025