Old Masters Picture Gallery (Kassel)

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The Kassel picture gallery in Wilhelmshöhe Palace

The Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister Kassel is a collection belonging to the Hessen Kassel Museum Landscape and in Wilhelmshöhe Palace .

collection

A look at the collections (2016)

The focus of the collection is on Flemish and Dutch painting of the 17th century, which can be traced back to the collecting passion of Landgrave Wilhelm VIII of Hessen-Kassel (1751–1760).

The main representatives of the Dutch and Flemish Baroque, such as Rembrandt , Frans Hals , Rubens , Anthonis and Floris van Dyck as well as Jacob Jordaens, have their own rooms. The Rembrandt Hall shows, among other things, the Jacob's Blessing and the Saskia and is unsurpassed in Germany in terms of the number and quality of Rembrandt paintings. By Peter Paul Rubens, the main works Triumph des Victor , the portrait of Nicolas de Respaigne, as well as Pan and Syrinx can be seen. Well-known pictures such as The Man with the Slouch Hat and The Funny Drinker are exhibited in the Frans-Hals-Saal . Jan Steen is represented with the oil painting Das Bohnenfest .

Furthermore, paintings of Italian, Spanish and French painting are presented, including major works by Titian , Murillos and Vouet . Titian has a portrait of a general , Giampietrino Leda with her children and Antonio Bellucci The Sick Son of the King . Old German and Old Dutch paintings form a rather small part of the collection, but they are convincing due to their quality, including Dürer's portrait of Elsbeth Tucher , Hans Baldung's Hercules and Antäus, and works by Jan Gossaert and Maarten van Heemskerck .

Collection history

Rembrandt : Portrait of Saskia van Uylenburgh

The first painting that can be associated with the landgrave's collection was given by Anne v. Mecklenburg in memory of Landgrave Wilhelm II (1485–1509) by Lucas Cranach the Elder. in order. The cabinet was first mentioned in 1653 and in 1696 the collection was housed in the Ottoneum , which originally functioned as a theater. The collection character was more that of a treasure trove and curiosity, as scientific objects and curiosities were collected in addition to paintings.

Under Landgrave Carl (1654–1730) some important works by Rembrandt, Rubens and Caravaggism came to Kassel. The collection was most enduringly shaped by Landgrave Wilhelm VIII , whose passion for collecting, particularly in the field of Dutch and Flemish painting, reached its peak in the middle of the 18th century, where he benefited from his high-level Dutch contacts and advisors. Wilhelm VIII succeeded in acquiring major works by Rubens ( Triumph of the Victor ), Rembrandt ( Jacob's Blessing ), Frans Hals and Jan Steen ( Bean Festival ); In addition, the purchase of Valerius Röver's cabinet represented a high-quality addition.

The growing collection gave rise to a specially constructed gallery building, which was completed in 1751 (destroyed in 1943), but was only part of a major project that was to include additional buildings. Wilhelm's successor Landgrave Friedrich II (1760–1785) opened the collection to a select audience - in the spirit of the Enlightenment.

The time of Napoléon , whose brother Jérôme Bonaparte resided in Kassel, can be described as the darkest chapter . In 1806, attempts were made to bring 48 high-quality paintings, including Lorrain's daily cycle , to safety from the Napoleonic troops, but they came into the possession of the Empress Joséphine , who used them to furnish her Malmaison Palace near Paris. After her death, the majority of these paintings became the property of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg . Many other paintings were selected by Vivant Denon for the Musée Napoléon , but could be returned to Kassel in the years 1814–1817 by Jacob Grimm and his delegation, which also included the gallery inspector Ernst Friedrich Ferdinand Robert . Under Prussian rule, the collection moved in 1877 to the gallery building designed by Heinrich von Dehn-Rotfelser on the Schöne Aussicht, which today houses the Neue Galerie .

The factories escaped the threats of World War II by outsourcing at an early stage. A selection of top-quality items was sent to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and from there returned to Kassel in 1956, undamaged. A few new acquisitions and permanent loans complement the extensive collection that has been presented in Wilhelmshöhe Palace since 1974.

In 1977, the mentally disturbed Hans-Joachim Bohlmann committed an acid attack on four of the most famous works in the collection, the restoration of which was not completed until 2006. The Blessing of James by Rembrandt van Rijn and his self-portrait with beret , The Apostle Thomas by Nicolaes Maes and Christ appears to Maria Magdalena as the gardener by Willem Drost were affected .

Directors

Well-known works (selection)

literature

  • Oskar Eisenmann : Album of the Kassel gallery. Forty color prints with a historical introduction and accompanying texts. 1907. lexikus.de
  • Erich Herzog, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Kassel (ed.): The picture gallery of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Kassel. Hanau 1969.
  • Bernhard Schnackenburg, Staatliche Museen Kassel (Ed.): Old Masters Picture Gallery. Complete catalog. Kassel / Mainz 1996.
  • Anja Schneckenburger Broschek: Old German painting. The panel paintings and altars from the 14th to 16th centuries in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister and in the Hessisches Landesmuseum Kassel. Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Kassel, Kassel 1997.
  • Bernhard Schnackenburg: History of the Old Masters Picture Gallery. In: Prestel Museum Guide: Schloss Wilhelmshöhe Kassel, Collection of Antiquities, Old Masters Picture Gallery, Collection of Graphics. Munich 2000.
  • Staatliche Museen Kassel (Hrsg.): Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister Kassel. 60 masterpieces. Kassel 2004.

Web links

Commons : Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas Krämer, Christiane Ehrenforth, Monika Kammer: On the restoration history of the works of Rembrandt, his students and workshop in the Kassel Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister . In: Journal for Art Technology and Conservation 33 (2019/1), pp. 137–177 (154f).

Coordinates: 51 ° 18 ′ 54 "  N , 9 ° 24 ′ 58"  E