Exhibition in Zurich
Landesmuseum tells the “royal visits” in Switzerland
From Louis II of Bavaria to Elizabeth II, he spent people. Two queens have even died with us: Sissi and Astrid de Belgique.
Elizabeth II planting his tree in 1970.
State Museum, Zurich 2025,
Certain protocol visits by heads of state only act the chancelleries. They generally lack glamor singularly. The good people are not going in Switzerland to take out the lanterns (red and federal cross as it should be) for a Croatian president or an Austrian chancellor in full jacket. Even “the golds of the Republic”, as we are not afraid to say in our French neighbors without realizing the contradiction they imply, ultimately move little. On the other hand, as soon as a crowned head appears somewhere between Geneva and Basel it is the fight-fight. The thing is now recalled by the Zurich Landesmuseum with “royal visits”. This is a somewhat reduced version of the exhibition mounted in 2021 in its Schwytz antenna. The institution has not only a French foot at the Prangins castle (1). It holds central and German-speaking Switzerland.
Grütli is not for sale
There was a starting point. Commissioner Michael Van Oursow, who plays the Stéphane Bern beyond the Sarine, thus begins his career with Louis II of Bavaria. The sovereign came to Switzerland several times from 1865. He particularly liked the Grütli. This born megalomaniac even wanted to buy the legendary meadow to build a pseudo-medieval castle there. Las! Protected since 1858, it was not for sale. Our country therefore does not have its Neuschwanstein today. The king was also fascinated by Guillaume Tell, on which he curiously owned Schiller’s play in Romanche. A booklet loaned by Bavaria which is in a window. He liked to hear the text (I guess in German) declaimed by his favorite actor Joseph Kainz. The two men will end up blurring at the edge of Lac de Lucerne… before a reconciliation relating to emotional tinking. This is evidenced here by a photo, where Louis II already appears very impaled alongside a threading actor.
Joseph Kainz and Reconciliated Bavaria II.
DR, Landesmuseum, Zurich 2025,
No Louis II without Sissi, who will haunt Swiss a lot before finishing stabbed in Geneva (1) by an anarchist in 1898. The exhibition, with a supposed baroque setting with lots of mirrors, presents several of his dresses acquired by collector Bruno Stefanini. A Zurichois who gathered during his life 30,000 paintings and objects the finesse of the size strikes. It must be said that the woman has spent her life on a diet. We would probably speak today of anorexia. There is also on a wall the last image of her, taken or more specifically stolen the day before her death in Territet. The fetishists, for whom the demonstration seems intended, will appreciate. Victoria undoubtedly has fewer “fans” than the Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary. The sovereign has passed to the AS, undoubtedly during the reduction of format suffered by “royal visit”. However, she came in 1868. Despite her overweight, Victoria apparently did not make the weight in the face of Napoleon III. However, it seems difficult to talk about a visit for the latter, who lived all his youth in exile in the canton of Thurgovie with his mother Queen Hortense (2). Trained militarily in Thoune by General Dufour, man will also be named “national bourgeois”. A title created specially for him. The act is exposed somewhere.
Sissi and his lady in Territét, the day before the drama in 1898.
DR, Landesmuseum, Zurich 2025.
Another star of a somewhat short exhibition and at times piled up, Queen Astrid of Belgium. The person will probably tell you nothing. Coming from Sweden to unite to Léopold III at a time when princes did not yet marry shepherdesses, the woman had acquired in the 1930s an extraordinary aura. It was all the more the Lady Di of the time that she too would die a car accident. The thing happened in 1935 in Küssnacht, in the canton of Schwytz. Léopold was driving. The woman will therefore experience a real cult. The French -speaking king will have to abdicate when he will later unlock a Flemish commoner, accused without proof of being favorable to Germany. One of the first manifestations of the conflict has always been raised between the two Belgium. The Emperor of Ethiopia seems very pale with such a popular figure. Haïssé Sélassié will however make two appearances in Switzerland including that, highly political, in 1936 in Geneva before the League of Nations. He will accuse Mussolinian Italy of inhuman war of conquest.
The baroque decor of an often quite unhappy taste.
State Museum, Zurich 2025.
The more time passes, the more the space tightens at the Landesmuseum. You have to summarize or accept gaps. Michael Van Oursow could not however do without Elizabeth II, who came a few days in 1970. She was not there to ski in Klosters, like her son Charles, but in order to carry out a route calculated to the nearest millimeter. No surprises. No reaction either, while demonstrators shouted their sympathy to Ireland. His Majesty calmly planted a tree, or at least pretended to do so. She hugged hands and distributed a few gifts and then left. As in Lourdes, royal visits are indeed from divine appearance. Note that we have done much less for Spain Letizia coming to inaugurate a Goya retrospective in the Beyeler in 2022. We just knew that she had inadvertently knocked out the content of her handbag (not exposed here, of course!) The spirit of crowd would have become more plebeian, or do we now need a lot to create the event in our small country?
(1) The weapon was offered as a gift by Geneva at the University of Vienna during 1965. She of course made the trip. It is in fact a sharp file.
(2) She gave part of her jewelry at the Abbaye d’Einsielden, who was able to lend a superb floral brooch in diamonds from the Empress Joséphine. Hortense’s mother, as everyone knows.
Practical
“Royal visits”, Landesmuseum, 2, Museumstrasse, Zurich, until November 9. Such. 044 218 65 11, Site https://landesmuseum.ch Open Tuesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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