Heart to art

Oskar Reinhart, Switzerland's Samuel Courtauld and a man so driven that he pursued one painting for 30 years, amassed such an extraordinary collection that it fed two museums. Now, a selection of his works goes on show in London

- Carla Passino

OSKAR REINHART lived for art. Not for making it-he called himself a 'non-artist-but for collecting it. Born in 1885 in Winterthur, Switzerland, he was the fourth son of Thomas Reinhart and Lilly Volkart, whose family had founded a successful trading company, Volkart Brothers. Thomas ran the firm and his children soon joined him, including Oskar, who, always more interested in art than in business, took the opportunity offered by his postings to Paris, London or Berlin to visit galleries, private collections, studios and exhibitions.

Although his means were initially limited, the young Reinhart liked to buy what works he could mostly prints, but he even managed to secure a small Renoir painting in 1912. He relied on his father for 'art loans' and tried (in vain) to persuade him to buy paintings that struck his fancy: he even took advantage of the older Herr Reinhart's reputation and reserved a few works, which, says the Courtauld Gallery's Ketty Gottardo, 'in the end were never bought. Whether or not his father objected to this, he only had himself to blame: he had long filled his house with art and culture, impressing on his children the importance of supporting both. Reinhart would later muse that 'to be able to grow up among artists and to be educated by them to lookthat was the great stroke of luck of my youth'.