Museum of Fine Arts Bern

Salvador Dalí (1904 – 1989), Atavisms of Twilight (Compulisive Idea) 1933

Dali’s cryptic painting is based on a picture executed by Millet. The famous surrealist transformed the idyllic landscape into a scene of horror, filling it with macabre eroticism.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864 – 1901), Mrs. Misia Natanson at the Piano, 1897

Misia Natanson was Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s friend and muse. He painted her portrait nine times in all. Find out more about this artist, who descended from an old aristocratic family, and the pianist from Saint Petersburg, who was the patroness of numerous other artists such as Renoir, Vallotton and Bonnard.

Alexandre Calame (1810 – 1864), The Grand Eiger, 1844

Alexandre Calame’s painting is firmly rooted in the romantic tradition. Find out more about his painting of the Eiger and why this artist from western Switzerland traveled to the Bernese Oberland.

Louis Moilliet (1880 – 1962), At the Music-Hall, 1913

The composition of Louis Moilliet’s richly colored painting is highly sophisticated. Find out more about this artist, who was born in Bern, and very unjustly destined to be overshadowed by his friends Paul Klee and August Macke. He accompanied them on a trip to Tunisia in 1914.

Chaim Soutine (1893 – 1943), Flayed Beef, 1926

Find out more about Chaim Soutine’s expressive painted masterpiece depicting a slaughtered ox. And about the painter too, who was friends with both Modigliani and Chagall. He lived and worked in the La Ruche studio collective in Paris.