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The air of respectable wealth surrounding the three-story villa that houses the E.G. Bührle collection is in keeping with its quiet residential neighborhood in Zurich. But it doesn't begin to betray the priceless treasure inside: one of the world's most impressive private collections of European art, with works by Delacroix, Degas, Renoir, Pissarro, Gauguin, Canaletto, Braque, Signac, Picasso and other masters from the 16th to the 20th centuries.

Upon entering, the first pleasant surprise is Monet's Poppies Near Vétheuil and Manet's In the Garden of Bellevue hanging in the downstairs salon. But the vibrancy and luminosity of those Impressionist masters are just a foretaste of this small but exquisite museum's offerings. Upstairs, for instance, is Van Gogh's The Sower, whose thick brushstrokes and bright greens, yellows and blues announced a new style for the artist at an especially troubled period of his life: only two months after finishing it in 1888, Van Gogh argued with Gauguin and famously cut off part of his ear.

Swiss industrialist Emil Georg Bührle (1890-1956) studied art history and was 30 years old when he began amassing his collection. Since 1960, his family's foundation has put around 200 of the works on public display.

Among Bührle's personal favorites, says the foundation's curator, Lukas Gloor, was Corot's A Girl Reading, because of "the painter's virtuoso handling of the color red." But anyone visiting this gem of a museum is bound to find a favorite of his or her own. 172 Zollikerstrasse; tel: (41-44) 422 00 86; www.buehrle.ch

• HELENA BACHMANN
• The discreet charms of a fine art collection in Zurich