Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg
Location within Strasbourg
Coordinates 48°34′52″N 7°45′08″E / 48.581111°N 7.752222°E / 48.581111; 7.752222
Website www.musees-strasbourg.org
"Vanity", by Hans Memling (detail from a polyptych)
"Portrait of a young lady", by Raphael
"Mater dolorosa", by El Greco
"Portrait of a bearded man" by Tintoretto
"Portrait of Luigia Cattaneo-Gentile" by Anthony van Dyck
"The Beautiful Strasbourg Woman" by Nicolas de Largillière

The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg (Museum of Fine Arts of Strasbourg) is the old masters paintings collection of the city of Strasbourg, located in the Alsace region of France. The museum is housed in the first and second floors of the baroque Palais Rohan since 1898. The museum displays works by non-Upper Rhenish artists from between the 14th century and 1871 and by Upper Rhenish artist from between 1681 and 1871.[1] The museum owns circa 865 works (as of 2009), of which 250 are on permanent display. The old masters from the upper-Rhenish area until 1681 are exhibited in the neighboring Musée de l’Œuvre Notre-Dame.

The Museum of Fine Arts of Strasbourg also owns a small but valuable collection of sculptures (mostly busts), principally from Italy and France.

Historical overview

The first municipal art collection of the city of Strasbourg was the result of the French Revolution, and was a consequence of the expropriation of churches and cloisters. Through the years, the collection, which was founded in 1801, grew by private donations, as well as government loans from the inventory of the Louvre. On August 24, 1870, the museum, which was housed in the Aubette on Place Kléber, was set on fire by Prussian artillery fire and completely destroyed. After the end of the Franco-Prussian War, it was resolved to re-establish the museum, and the imperial art historian Wilhelm von Bode was commissioned with the task in 1889. In 1890, the museum was launched and was re-stocked since that time by acquisitions and gifts. In 1931 under the leadership of Hans Haug (1890–1965), the collection of medieval art and upper-Rhenish painting (Konrad Witz, Hans Baldung, Sebastian Stoskopff) was transferred to the newly founded Musée de l’Œuvre Notre-Dame. The collection of modern art went to the Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg (Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Strasbourg). Haug's superior during the German occupation from 1940 to 1944 was Kurt Martin.[2]

On August 13, 1947, fire destroyed part of the re-established collection, including works of Francesco Guardi, Thomas de Keyser,[3] Antonio del Pollaiolo and Lucas Cranach the Elder. However with the money from the insurance, it was possible to acquire other artistically valuable paintings. The collection of the museum is also regularly being expanded by donations, notably in 1987 and 1994 by collectors Othon Kaufman and François Schlageter (Italian paintings), in 2004 by collectors Roger and Elisabeth Eisenbeth (Dutch paintings)[4] and in 2009 by the collector Ann L. Oppenheimer (Italian, Flemish and Dutch paintings).[5]

Painters exhibited (selected)

Italian

Giotto di Bondone
Sano di Pietro
Sandro Botticelli
Cima da Conegliano
Carlo Crivelli
Filippino Lippi
Piero di Cosimo
Cima da Conegliano
Raphael
Correggio
Veronese
Tintoretto
Guercino
Canaletto
Giambattista Tiepolo
Salvator Rosa
Alessandro Magnasco
Giuseppe Maria Crespi

Flemish and Dutch

Simon Marmion
Hans Memling
Lucas van Leyden
Gerard David
Maarten van Heemskerck
Peter Paul Rubens
Jacob Jordaens
Salomon van Ruysdael
Pieter de Hooch
Anthony van Dyck
Willem Kalf
Pieter Claesz
Christiaen van Couwenbergh
Cornelis Engelsz

Spanish

El Greco
Jusepe de Ribera
Francisco de Zurbarán
Francisco de Goya

French

Philippe de Champaigne
Claude Lorrain
Nicolas de Largillière
François Boucher
Simon Vouet
Antoine Watteau
Jean Siméon Chardin
Philip James de Loutherbourg
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
Théodore Chassériau
Gustave Courbet
Théodore Rousseau
Edgar Degas

Sculptors exhibited

Baccio Bandinelli
Alessandro Algardi
Alessandro Vittoria
François Girardon
Jean-Antoine Houdon
Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux
Théodore-Charles Gruyère
François Joseph Bosio
Adolf von Hildebrand


Bibliography

References

  1. 1871 is the year of the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine to the German Empire
  2. Andrea Christine Bambi: Rezension von Tessa Friederike Rosebrock, Kurt Martin und das Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg. In: sehepunkte 12, 2012, Nr. 6 [15 June 2012]
  3. "Flemish and Dutch paintings at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Strasbourg", The Art Tribune, 20 April 2009
  4. "Agrandissement du Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg" La Tribune de l'Art, 21 February 2007 (French)
  5. "Plusieurs tableaux légués au Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg", La Tribune de l'Art, 15 April 2009 (French)
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