From Ensor to Matisse

Dr. Irmgard Feldhaus, who died at the age of 90, left more than 50 top-class paintings, watercolors and woodcuts as well as outstanding painters' books and portfolios to the Clemens-Sels-Museum Neuss. In a comprehensive tribute to the patron and former director of the museum, more than 160 exhibits from her collection were shown.

In particular, almost an entire floor was dedicated to the outstanding French painting books: In addition to Marc Chagall's Bible illustrations and Henri Matisse's famous artist's book "Jazz," works by Fernand Léger, Maurice Denis and Aristide Maillol were on display. Always guided by an inexplicable instinct and great connoisseurship, Irmgard Feldhaus was also able to acquire Max Beckmann's famous portfolio "Fair" early on. The integration of touch screens and facsimiles also gave visitors the opportunity to discover the hidden pages of the books and portfolio works.

A special highlight was the oil painting "The Marquise" by James Ensor from 1911. Together with "The Bourgeois Salon" and the "Still Life of an Aster" from 1905, it was possible to explore the Belgian Symbolist's skillful play with different levels of reality. The Rhenish Expressionists were joined by, among others, Heinrich Campendonk's watercolor "St. Nicholas" and the "Street in Bonn" by Paul Adolf Seehaus, the first and only pupil of August Macke. Irmgard Feldhaus suspected early on that one day there would be a broad interest in color painting and that people would no longer smile at the art of the naïve, but would marvel appreciatively: thus the exhibition also featured serigraphs by Josef Albers and paintings by the "German Rousseau," Adalbert Trillhaase.