Rahn (1841–1912)

Draughtsman, researcher and pioneer of historic monument preservation

Throughout his life, Johann Rudolf Rahn travelled around Switzerland, constantly on the lookout for subjects to draw and document in words. He was a pioneer in the inventarisation of Switzerland’s cultural heritage.

Johann Rudolf Rahn was born in 1841 to a long-established Zurich family of guild masters and councillors. In 1878 he was appointed Professor of Art History at the University of Zurich, followed in 1883 by a professorship at the Polytechnic Institute (now the ETH). Rahns’s principal work, the “History of the Visual Arts in Switzerland”, was published in 1873–76, and was the first survey of its kind.

His drawings of the architecture and art not just of Switzerland but also of Germany and Italy are the focal point of the exhibition. Further exhibits from the Zentralbibliothek Zürich and loans from prestigious collections locate Rahn in his historical context. They illustrate areas of historic monument preservation and inventorisation as well as research fields such as book illumination, glass and mural painting. Rahn’s biographies of numerous late medieval and Renaissance artists are still highly regarded by researchers.

Rahn played an influential role in Switzerland’s cultural life. He was a member of the convention at the Zurich city library, which became the Zentralbibliothek Zürich in 1914. He was also the initiator of the “Swiss Society for the Preservation of Historical Artistic Monuments”, which was founded in 1880 and soon began acquiring important art objects for the Federal Art Collection. As an expert in ancient art, Rahn played a key role in the public success of the 1883 National Exhibition. His research laid the foundations for the theoretical concept behind the National Museum, with imitation historical architectural features referencing the institution’s programme. Rahn was thus heavily involved in the establishment of the Swiss National Museum and the choice of Zurich as its location. He was a member of the museum commission until his death in 1912.

Numerous certificates marking his 70th birthday bear witness to the widespread esteem in which he was held. Further objects in the exhibition attest to his close friendships with the Basel artist Ernst Stückelberg, the writer Conrad Ferdinand Meyer and, not least, his friend from youth the historian Gerold Meyer von Knonau whose cousin, Caroline, Rahn married in 1868.

The Zentralbibliothek Zürich is marking the 100th anniversary of Rahn’s death in 2012 by revisiting the memory of this unjustly neglected scholar. Rahn’s continuing relevance lies in his fundamental research on individual buildings and artists and in his unerring eye for quality and the categorisation of art works. To this day, historic monuments research and art scholarship refer back to his drawings as records of their time.

Exhibition curators: Dr. Jochen Hesse and lic. phil. Barbara Dieterich