Paul Cézanne, Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet and many others – between 1936 and 1956 the Swiss industrialist Emil Bührle (1890–1956) assembled an impressive collection around French Impressionism. As the owner of the largest weapons factory in the country he had close links to the historical events of the period from World War II to the Cold War.

Initially Emil Bührle acquired works almost exclusively in Switzerland; then, from 1951, an intensive second phase followed, which was greatly influenced by Bührle’s business dealings with the United States. The publication illustrates the colourful history of the collection, which includes a total of 633 works, and examines its importance with regard to modernist art collections in Germany, Switzerland and the United States. The survey is complemented by contributions from a number of authors who present 70 masterpieces of the collection, from the old masters to Picasso.