He immediately set about the acquisition of modern French painting, securing In the Conservatory (Au jardin d’hiver) by Édouard Manet from 1879, and the first Paul Cézanne to enter any public collection anywhere followed the next year in July 1897.

The contemporary work, mixing the sacred with the profane and the primitive, was not generally appreciated by most Europeans at the time.

Tschudi was given a new job as director of the Neue Pinakothek in Munich, in the Kingdom of Bavaria, which he continued to manage until his death in 1911.

Tschudi, serving as the general director of the collections, acquired 44 paintings, nine sculptures and 22 drawings, mostly from emerging French artists.

In Bavaria public funds could not be used to buy such works, but Tschudi's associates were able to find the money to complete the purchases with private contributions after his death in 1911.