From Monday, October 6 to Thursday, October 9, Caumont will be open from 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Exhibition
Regards d’un collectionneur
Caillebotte, Vallotton, Lempicka, Valadon, Picasso, Renoir, Manet…
From November 7, 2025, to March 22, 2026Caumont Art Centre presents an exhibition of works from the collection of Oscar Ghez (1905-1998), a Tunisian-born industrialist and avid collector. Nearly 60 masterpieces from this collection, now housed at the Musée du Petit Palais in Geneva, founded by Oscar Ghez in 1968, will be arranged chronologically and thematically, tracing the development of French painting from the end of the 19th century to the avant-garde figures of the 20th century.
Started in the 1950s, Oscar Ghez’s collection stood out for its choices, which went against the spirit of the age. This visionary took an interest in artists who were not well regarded by the market at the time and went on to become great names in the history of art, such as Gustave Caillebotte, Frédéric Bazille, Marie Bracquemond and Maximilien Luce. A great lover of figures and portraits, he moved away from landscape painting, which was dominant in Impressionist collections of the period. He also gave pride of place to women artists, who are well represented in the exhibition.
Curated by Marina Ferretti, this exhibition is a tribute to a unique collection, shaped by an enlightened amateur who, with intuition and exactingness, managed to ignore passing trends and reveal major artistic careers. A captivating journey through half a century of creation, brought to life by an open, enlightened perspective.
The team
Curatorship
Marina Ferretti
Marina Ferretti was head of the Signac Archives from 1983 to 2012, project manager for the creation of the Musée Pierre Bonnard in Le Cannet from 2003 to 2008 and scientific director of the Musée des impressionnismes Giverny from 2009 to 2019. She is now an independent art historian specialising in Post-Impressionism. She has often curated exhibitions, including Signac 1863-1935 (2001, Paris, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum and New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art), Signac, les harmonies colorées (2021, Paris, Musée Jacquemart-André) and Signac collectionneur (2022, Paris, Musée d’Orsay). At Giverny, she was responsible for the museum’s programming and curated numerous exhibitions, including Le Jardin de Monet à Giverny (2009), Bonnard en Normandie (2011), Signac, les couleurs de l’eau (2013), Caillebotte, peintre et jardinier (2015), Japonismes/Impressionnismes (2018) and H.E. Cross, Peindre le bonheur (2018). She has published numerous books and essays on painting from the second half of the 19th century to the turn of the 20th century.
Petit Palais, Geneva
Prof. Claude Ghez, Chairman of the Friends of the Petit Palais Association.
Marjorie Dugerdil Klein, Curator of the collection
Production and installation
Emmanuelle Lussiez, Exhibition Director, Culturespaces;
Milly Passigli, Director of Exhibition Programming;
Madeleine Balansino, Exhibition Manager for Caumont Art Centre;
Livia Lérès, Domitille Sechet and Mathilde Seys for the iconography at Culturespaces; Hubert le Gall, French designer, creator and contemporary art sculptor, assisted by Laurie Cousseau. Hubert Le Gall produces original scenography for many exhibitions, in particular at Caumont Art Centre and the Musée Jacquemart-André.