Wilhelmina von Hallwyl

Wilhelmina of Hallwyl ( born October 1, 1844 in Stockholm as Wilhelmina Kempe, † July 25, 1930 ibid ) was a Swedish countess and patron of the arts.

Biography

She was the daughter of William Henry Kempe, the owner of Ljusne - Voxna AB, the then largest Swedish wood trading company. In 1865 she married Walter of Hallwyl; he was descended from the noble family of the Swiss Hallwyl which can be traced back to the 12th century, but increasingly lost importance after the collapse of the old system of rule in 1798 there. 1874 bought the couple the Hallwyl, the headquarters in Canton Aargau, überschuldetem Walthers brother Hans von Hallwyl.

In the 1880s, the art intelligent and interested in history by Wilhelmina Hallwyl began building an extensive art collection. In 1893 she gave the architect Isak Gustaf Clason the contract to build the Hamngatan in Stockholm Hallwylska palats, to house the collection; The construction took five years. In 1920, she donated the building and collection to the Swedish state, who then opened the Hallwylska Museum.

Wilhelmina of Hallwyl, often staying in Switzerland, began in 1903 with the order of Hallwyl archive and handed this in 1926 the State Archives of the Canton of Bern. 1910, she led a comprehensive maintenance position of the lock Hallwyl. In the following six years, the archaeologist Nils Lithberg undertook extensive investigations, while the architect Anders Roland set back the castle in the medieval state, while Hans von Hallwyls made ​​neo-Gothic reconstruction undone.

Since they had no male offspring, Wilhelmina von Hallwyl In 1925, with the consent of their relatives the Hallwyl Foundation and made the Hallwyl public access castle. The valuable asset of the castle she gave to the Swiss National Museum, 1927, it installed its special place in the museum building in Zurich.