Gemäldegalerie Düsseldorf (building)

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Elevation of the central wing and section of the wings of the gallery building (copper engraving from 1776)
Floor plan of the building of the electoral picture gallery in Düsseldorf with the location of the Jan Wellem statue
Burgplatz in 1859. On the left the gallery building, on the right the academy, the former castle. Drawing AT Franck

The paintings in the Gemäldegalerie Düsseldorf were housed in a three-wing, two-storey gallery building that had been erected on the south side of the Residenzschloss on the Rhine from 1709 to 1714 at the suggestion of the court painter Jan Frans van Douven on behalf of Elector Johann Wilhelm zu Pfalz-Neuburg . The building was one of the "earliest independent museum buildings in Europe". Since two wings of the building were demolished in 1881, only the former east wing remains.

Gallery building

The general superintendent Count Matteo Alberti from the Electorate of the Palatinate provided the design for the building of the picture gallery, while the execution was in the hands of the court architect Jacob du Bois, a half-brother of the court sculptor Gabriel Grupello . The baroque brick building, on the ground floor of which Johann Joachim Winckelmann provided casts of antiquities and large statues, was connected to the castle on its north side so that the elector could enter the gallery from his rooms. The ceilings of the gallery were designed by the architecture and perspective painter Antonio Milanese, together with Domenico Zanetti and Johann Fischer von Erlach . The entrance to the electoral picture gallery flanked the portrait busts of Elector Johann Wilhelm and Electress Anna Maria Luisa from the Medici family , created by Grupello. You are now in the Rubens Gallery of the Museum Kunstpalast . Between 1716 and 1738 the so-called Grupello pyramid stood on the square in front of the gallery , a baroque bronze cast by the court sculptor Grupello, which was replaced by the Jan Wellem memorial that is now in the town hall.

Electoral Court Library / Royal State Library

Royal State Library around 1902

Since 1770 the "Electoral Public Library" founded by Karl Theodor von der Pfalz was housed in the gallery building. This played an important role in the cultural life of Düsseldorf: "The unmistakable upswing of educational institutions in the century of the Enlightenment reached a certain climax in 1770 with the establishment of a public library, which according to its statutes should be available to everyone."

The library initially received two halls and an anteroom on the ground floor of the south wing, which were previously assigned to the court registry. As these rooms soon proved to be unsuitable due to excessive humidity, the library moved to two halls on the first floor of the east wing of the gallery at the end of 1777. In 1803 a third room was added in the south wing, and another move to two rooms on the upper floor of the east wing took place in 1822.

Duration

In addition to the historical collections of the State Library, which can still be found in the University and State Library of Düsseldorf and the Heinrich Heine Institute , a collection of small bronze works from the old castle was also kept in the Royal State Library:

  • Statuette of Minerva , 33 cm high, made of un-chased bronze, cast by Gabriel Grupello . The armed goddess, her head with a high helmet and a laurel wreath, stood in front of a trophy of arms, her left arm slightly raised.
  • Bust of the Palatinate Electress Anna Maria , daughter of the Grand Duke of Tuscany and wife of Johann Wilhelm von Pfalz-Neuburg . The work created by Grupello was made of chased bronze and 56 cm high. It stood on a high, curved plinth, the front of which showed in bas-relief a genius enthroned on clouds with a trumpet and a palm of peace. The bust was elaborately modeled and boldly draped and was considered an important decorative work.
  • Bronze figure of Paris . The foundry by Grupello was 35 cm high and consisted of un-chiseled bronze. It depicted a naked youth figure in soft and calmly flowing lines.
  • Bronze figure of seated Paris (44 cm high) and a seated elderly man (48 cm high). This was considered to be inferior student work and was assigned to the Gusshütte Gruppelos.

Extension of the east wing in 1869

Old Palace in Düsseldorf (1869)
Ständehaus (left), gallery building (center) and castle tower (right)

Due to constant purchases, the library rooms became too small over time, so that the east wing of the Gemäldegalerie received an extension from 1866–1869, which included a new library, catalog and reading room, among other things. Heino Pfannenschmid described the building history of this new regional library on Burgplatz as follows:

“In 1866 the approval for the execution of the draft of an extension, which originated here from the secret government and building architect Krüger and was estimated by the royal building inspector Schroers, was granted. The equally tasteful and solid construction was started under the direction of the aforementioned K. Bauinspector in April 1867 and has now been completed. As a result of this extension, in addition to the apartments for the library servant and the castellan of the art academy on the ground floor and on the mezzanine floor for the sake of the library, five rooms on the first floor have been gained, namely in addition to the existing [...] a long hall with two galleries, a reading room and a study for the librarian, while the room of the catalog and librarian room in the old stairwell was used by expanding the current so-called catalog room, as the old staircase was demolished and replaced by a new one in the front annex. The stately extension is made of bricks and plastered in the façades, the roof is covered with zinc. The construction costs, which amount to about 22,000 thalers, are due to an extraordinary permit from the royal. Ministry of Spiritual, etc., has been made liquid.

This space, newly gained by the extension, which was occupied last spring, was so absolutely necessary that it, together with the two old halls occupied by books, is just enough to accommodate and the new exhibition of the existing masses of books, which has been changed many times, but gives the advantage to remedy the lack of space for a long period of time through repositories that are easy and convenient to attach. "

- Heino Pfannenschmid 1870 (p. 421–422)

  • The east wing of the picture gallery in the background of a painting by Wilhelm Schreuer

  • The east wing of the picture gallery in the background of a painting by Wilhelm Schreuer

Demolition of the west and south wings

Fire at Düsseldorf Castle, painting by August von Wille, 1872 The east wing of the Gemäldegalerie (left) on Burgplatz around 1908
Fire at Düsseldorf Castle , painting by August von Wille , 1872
The east wing of the Gemäldegalerie (left) on Burgplatz around 1908

When the Düsseldorf Palace burned in 1872, the entire gallery building was largely spared. Until the opening of its new building at the security harbor in 1879, the art academy was temporarily housed in the remaining rooms of the gallery. The building was then taken over by the city of Düsseldorf, which made the Antikensaal on the ground floor under the library available to the Historical Museum from 1879 . The west and south wings of the gallery were demolished in 1881 for the construction of the Düsseldorf School of Applied Arts , from which a structural connection was later created to the remaining east wing. The "Royal State Library" was given to the city of Düsseldorf in 1904 and two years later, as the "State and City Library Düsseldorf", it moved into the western wing of the Kunstgewerbemuseum on Friedrichsplatz, today's Grabbeplatz . In 1928 the Historical Museum was moved to the same building.

The extended east wing of the gallery is still preserved at Burgplatz 2 and is now used by the city of Düsseldorf as an administration building, among other things.

literature

  • Sabine Koch: The Düsseldorf picture gallery . In: Bénédicte Savoy (ed.): Temple of Art. The birth of the public museum in Germany 1701–1815 . Böhlau Verlag, Cologne 2015, ISBN 978-3-412-22251-2 , p. 151 ff.
  • Heino Pfannenschmid: The Royal State Library of Düsseldorf from the time of its foundation (March 1770) to the present. In: Archives for the history of the Lower Rhine , New Series, Volume 2, Issue 2. Publisher by JM Heberle (H. Lempertz), Cologne 1870, pp. 373-431. ( online at Google Books )
  • Anton Fahne : The Düsseldorf museum building . Düsseldorf 1876 ( digitized version )

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl Leopold Strauven : About artistic life and work in Düsseldorf to the Düsseldorf painter school under director Schadow . Hofbuchdruckerei H. Voss, Düsseldorf 1862, p. 11.
  2. ↑ When Florence approached the Rhine with a detailed description of the picture gallery
  3. ↑ Die Bildenden Künste , article in the portal duesseldorf.de , accessed on October 20, 2014.
  4. ^ A b Else Rümmler: Düsseldorf at the time of Johann Wilhelm and Anna Maria Luisa. In: Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf: Anna Maria Luisa Medici. Electress of the Palatinate. Article in the exhibition catalog, Verlag R. Meyer, Düsseldorf 1988, p. 32
  5. ^ Karl Leopold Strauven: About artistic life and work in Düsseldorf to the Düsseldorf painter school under director Schadow . Hofbuchdruckerei H. Voss, Düsseldorf 1862, p. 40.
  6. ↑ Manfred von Stosch: Düsseldorf's "public library" 1770–1809 . In: Gerhard Kurz (Ed.): Düsseldorf in der deutschen Geistesgeschichte (1750-1850) , Schwann-Bagel publishing house, Düsseldorf 1984, p. 37, ISBN 3-590-30244-5
  7. ^ Karl Leopold Strauven: About artistic life and work in Düsseldorf to the Düsseldorf painter school under director Schadow . Hofbuchdruckerei H. Voss, Düsseldorf 1862, p. 24.
  8. ↑ Bust Anna Maria Luisa de 'Medici, Electress Paladine from the collection of Museum Kunstpalast , on Google Arts & Culture
  9. ↑ Verkehrsverein Düsseldorf (ed.): Guide through Düsseldorf on the Rhine and its surroundings. Düsseldorfer Verlags-Anstalt, Düsseldorf 1904, p. 9.
  10. ↑ Hugo Weidenhaupt (Ed.): Düsseldorf history from the origins to the 20th century. Volume 2: From the royal seat to the civil servant town (1614–1900). Schwann, Düsseldorf 1988, ISBN 3-491-34222-8 , p. 244.
  11. ^ Matthias Graf von Schmettow: From the building history of the state and city library. In: Librarian Additional Hours. Dedicated to Joseph Gießler on the occasion of his 65th birthday. Düsseldorf 1964, p. 5.
  12. ↑ Pfannenschmid 1870, pp. 380f., 420f.
  13. ^ Matthias Graf von Schmettow: From the building history of the state and city library. In: Librarian Additional Hours. Dedicated to Joseph Gießler on the occasion of his 65th birthday. Düsseldorf 1964, p. 6f.
  14. ^ Matthias Graf von Schmettow: From the building history of the state and city library. In: Librarian Additional Hours. Dedicated to Joseph Gießler on the occasion of his 65th birthday. Düsseldorf 1964, p. 8.
  15. ^ Paul Clemen (ed.): The art monuments of the Rhine province. Third volume. I. The art monuments of the city and the district of Düsseldorf. On behalf of the Provincial Association of the Rhine Province . Düsseldorf 1894, p. 71
  16. ^ Matthias Graf von Schmettow: From the building history of the state and city library. In: Librarian Additional Hours. Dedicated to Joseph Gießler on the occasion of his 65th birthday. Düsseldorf 1964, p. 9f.
  17. ^ Karl Woermann : On the history of the Düsseldorf Art Academy , Düsseldorf 1880, p. 9.
  18. ^ Karl Woermann : On the history of the Düsseldorf Art Academy , Düsseldorf 1880, p. 14.
  19. ↑ Edmund Spohr , Hatto Küffner: Castle, Castle and Gallery . Düsseldorf 2005, ISBN 3-933969-05-0 , p. 129.
  20. ^ Matthias Graf von Schmettow: From the building history of the state and city library. In: Librarian Additional Hours. Dedicated to Joseph Gießler on the occasion of his 65th birthday. Düsseldorf 1964, p. 10.
  21. ^ Matthias Graf von Schmettow: From the building history of the state and city library. In: Librarian Additional Hours. Dedicated to Joseph Gießler on the occasion of his 65th birthday. Düsseldorf 1964, p. 11f.
  22. ↑ Jörg Gamer: Matteo Alberti: Senior Building Director of the Elector Johann Wilhelm von der Pfalz, Duke of Jülich and Berg etc. , Düsseldorf: Schwann, 1978. (Die Kunstdenkmäler des Rheinlandes: Beih .; 18). ISBN 3-590-29018-8 , p. 200.
  23. ^ Sonja Schürmann: Burgplatz and Marktplatz zu Düsseldorf: Two historical squares in the old town. Rhenish Association for Monument Preservation and Landscape Protection, Cologne 1988, ISBN 3-88094-598-5 , p. 11f.

Coordinates: 51 ° 13 ′ 35.7 ″  N , 6 ° 46 ′ 19 ″  E