Stephen Helmuth Floersheimer (21 March 1925 - 6 April 2011) was a Swiss investment banker, philanthropist and art collector, who founded the Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy.

Biography

The son of Walter and Charlotte Floersheimer, was born in Berlin to Jewish parents, he fled to Belgium in 1933 and then on to his grandfather David Floersheimer (1873–1963) in the United States. After studies at Oxford and training at a bank, he moved with his family to Zurich, Switzerland in 1970. He had two children, Daniel Floersheimer and Barbara Floersheimer Rothschild.

Philanthropist

An avid fighter for justice and democracy he founded the Floersheimer Institute for Policy Studies, since 2007 called the

Floersheimer studies Stephen Helmuth Floersheimer (21 March 1925 - 6 April 2011) was a Swiss investment banker, philanthropist and art collector, who founded the Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy. Biography The son of Walter and Charlotte Floersheim ...

, at the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

in 1991, publishing studies in the field of society and governance in

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. As an honorary doctorate in humanities from

Yeshiva University Yeshiva University is a Private university, private Modern Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox Jewish university with four campuses in New York City.

, he established the Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy at the

Cardozo School of Law The Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law is the Law school in the United States, law school of Yeshiva University in New York City. Founded in 1976 and now located on Fifth Avenue near Union Square, Manhattan, Union Square in Lower Manhattan, the sc ...

, for the understanding and improvement of modern democracies. He also founded the Walter Floersheimer Chair for Constitutional Law.

Art collector

In 1989, he took charge of his father's art collection which was periodically exhibited at the

UBS UBS Group AG (stylized simply as UBS) is a multinational investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland, with headquarters in both Zurich and Basel. It holds a strong foothold in all major financial centres as the ...

headquarters in Zurich. Part of the collection with works by

Raoul Dufy Raoul Dufy (; 3 June 1877 – 23 March 1953) was a French painter associated with the Fauvist movement. He gained recognition for his vibrant and decorative style, which became popular in various forms, such as textile designs, and public build ...

Camille Corot Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot ( , , ; 16 July 1796 – 22 February 1875), or simply Camille Corot, was a French landscape and portrait painter as well as a printmaker in etching. A pivotal figure in landscape painting, his vast output si ...

Paul Gauguin Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramist, and writer, whose work has been primarily associated with the Post-Impressionist and Symbolist movements. He was also an influ ...

Chaïm Soutine Chaïm Soutine (; ; ; 13 January 1893 – 9 August 1943) was a French painter of Belarusian-Jewish origin of the School of Paris, who made a major contribution to the Expressionist movement while living and working in Paris. Inspired by clas ...

and

Edgar Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints, and drawings. Degas is e ...

was donated to the

Israel Museum The Israel Museum (, ''Muze'on Yisrael'', ) is an Art museum, art and archaeology museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world's leading Encyclopedic museum, encyclopa ...

where it is displayed at the Lotte and Walter Floersheimer Gallery for Impressionist Art. His contributions of

impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

works to the collection made it into one of the most important private collections in Switzerland. Displayed at Floersheimer's country estate at the Casa Carlotta,

Orselina Orselina is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Locarno (district), Locarno in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Ticino in Switzerland. History Orselina is first mentioned in 1182 as ''Concilio Meziano''. In 1323 ...

, the collection includes works by

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, ; ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of Impressionism painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his ...

: ''Gran canale'' Venice,

Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

Georges Braque Georges Braque ( ; ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century List of French artists, French painter, Collage, collagist, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his alliance with ...

Alfred Sisley Alfred Sisley (; ; 30 October 1839 – 29 January 1899) was an Impressionist landscape painter who was born and spent most of his life in France, but retained British citizenship. He was the most consistent of the Impressionists in his dedic ...

Camille Pissarro Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( ; ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but then in the Danish West Indies). ...

Titian Tiziano Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), Latinized as Titianus, hence known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian Renaissance painter, the most important artist of Renaissance Venetian painting. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno. Ti ...

Oskar Schlemmer Oskar Schlemmer (; 4 September 1888 – 13 April 1943) was a German painter, sculptor, designer and choreographer associated with the Bauhaus school. In 1923, he was hired as Master of Form at the Bauhaus theatre workshop, after working at the ...

Juan Gris José Victoriano González-Pérez (23 March 1887 – 11 May 1927), better known as Juan Gris (; ), was a Spanish painter born in Madrid who lived and worked in France for most of his active period. Closely connected to the innovative artistic g ...

Fernand Léger Joseph Fernand Henri Léger (; February 4, 1881 – August 17, 1955) was a French painting, painter, sculpture, sculptor, and film director, filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of cubism (known as "tubism") which he gradually ...

and

Alexander Archipenko Alexander Porfyrovych Archipenko (February 25, 1964) was a Ukrainian-American avant-garde artist, sculpture, sculptor, and graphic designer, graphic artist, active in France and the United States. He was one of the first to apply the principles o ...

, together with contemporary artists like

Maurice Estève Maurice Estève, (2 May 1904, Culan (Cher) – 29 June 2001), was a French painter. Biography Maurice Estève was born in the French town of Culan (Département Cher) on 2 May 1904. In 1913 he moved to Paris with his parents, where he soon b ...

Daniel Garbade Daniel Garbade (born 1957) is a Spanish painter, illustrator, art director, property master and publisher. Born in Switzerland from Swiss-Cuban origins, Garbade is the grand-nephew of Adrien Lachenal, great-grandchild of Cuban sculptor Fernando ...

Gaston Chaissac Gaston Chaissac (1910–1964) was a French painter. An autodidact and son of the French rural working class, he became involved in the art world when he lived next door to Otto Freundlich and Jeanne Kosnick-Kloss in Paris during the 1930s. They sho ...

and . Sculptures by

Aristide Maillol Aristide Joseph Bonaventure Maillol (; December 8, 1861 – September 27, 1944) was a French sculptor, painter, and printmaking, printmaker.Le Normand-Romain, Antoinette . "Maillol, Aristide". ''Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online''. Oxford ...

and Archipenko are shown in the surrounding gardens. His two ''Arlequins'', works by

, were included in the Juan Gris exhibit at the

Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía The ''Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía'' ("Queen Sofía National Museum Art Centre"; MNCARS) is Spain's national museum of 20th-century art. The museum was officially inaugurated on September 10, 1992, and is named for Queen Sofía. I ...

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

, 2003.

Sailor

Stephen Floersheimer built his own 36m luxury sail super yacht in 1996, with Terence Disdale acting as a styling consultant. Designed and refitted in 2015 by Camper & Nicholsons, the ''Yanneke Too'' was built using E-glass, Kevlar and epoxy with cedar core for the hull and foam for the deck. He won many races, like the Superyacht Cup in Antigua 2007 with Captain Charles Dwyer at the Helm. During more than 10 years he participated and won several times the ''Puckets Invitational Superyacht Rendez-vou''s.

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Floersheimer'Stephen 1925 births 2011 deaths Swiss art collectors Swiss philanthropists Jewish art collectors Swiss people of German-Jewish descent