Riga Stock Exchange Art Museum

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Riga Stock Exchange Art Museum (formerly the Museum of Foreign Art)

The Riga Stock Exchange Art Museum ( Latvian Mākslas muzejs "Rīgas Birža" ), located in the building of the former Riga Stock Exchange on Cathedral Square, houses the largest collection of Western European and Near and Far Eastern art from the 16th century to the present in Latvia , making it one of the most important art museums of the country. Until 2010 it was located in the south wing of the Riga Castle and from 1992 was called the Museum of Foreign Art ( Latvian Ārzemju mākslas muzejs ).

history

The basis of the museum's holdings was the collection of the Riga doctor and traveler Nikolaus von Himsel (1729–1764), who left his hometown a large library, a coin collection and archive material on the history of the city as well as a collection of graphics and paintings that went up to the center of the 19th century was exhibited in its own museum named after him. Around 1866, the city of Riga acquired the painting collection of the Italian Domenico de Robiani , who had lived in Riga for a long time , and who would spend his old age in Italy and not take his collection with him. The collection contained a number of Dutch, German and French works. The two art collections were merged and it was decided to found an art museum. Due to a lack of space, the newly founded Municipal Picture Gallery was temporarily housed in the house of Mayor Ludwig Kerkovius from 1879 to 1905 . During this time, the collection grew rapidly through numerous donations and bequests; The poet Reinhold Schilling donated 30 pictures and Mayor Kerkovius 26 pictures from the collection. The largest and most significant addition, however, was the permanent loan from the Friedrich Wilhelm Brederlo collection , which comprised 201 paintings, including around 70 works by old Dutch masters.

In 1905 it was finally possible to open its own museum building in which, in addition to a small collection of sculptures, a collection of now 500 paintings could be presented. In the following years the collection grew steadily. The most important entry in the 1930s was a larger collection of works by Belgian artists of the 19th century. Today the museum's collection of paintings comprises around 1000 pictures.

After 1945 the collection was divided into two museums, one of which ( Valsts latviešu un krievu mākslas muzejs / State Museum of Latvian and Russian Art, today Latvian National Art Museum ) the local - and Russian - and the other ( Vakareiropas mākslas muzejs / Museum for "evening European", i.e. Western European art) should house art from the rest of the world. From 1952 the museum was expanded to include departments for art of the ancient Orient, the ancient world and the Far East and renamed Latvijas PSR Tēlotājas mākslas muzejs (Museum of Fine Arts of the Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic), then in 1964 to Aizrobežu mākslas muzejs (Museum of " marginalized "Art) and 1992 linguistically correct in Ārzemju mākslas muzejs (Museum of Foreign Art). The museum has had its current name since 2010.

Most important works of art

Painting until around 1800

Painting from around 1800

Gregor von Bochmann "A Rainy Day" (1913)

Sculptures

drawings

Jan Both : Landscape with a valley; Raymond de la Fage : Bacchanal; François Quelvée : Portrait of a Woman; Karl Christian Vogel von Vogelstein : Portrait of a man

literature

  • Daiga Upeniece et al .: Mākslas muzejs Rīgas Birža / Art Museum Riga Bourse Jumava, Riga 2011, ISBN 978-9984-38-963-9 .

Web links

Coordinates: 56 ° 57 ′ 2.8 ″  N , 24 ° 6 ′ 5.6 ″  E