The Neue Pinakothek was completed in 1859 and was intended to be the first museum in Europe for the exhibition of contemporary paintings.[1] The established schools of European painting were displayed. On the ground floor 1ß6 plaster busts of contemporary celebrities were also displayed.[2]
The building was redeveloped in the late 20th century. Designed by architect Alexander von Branca in the new style of Postmodernism, the building opened in 1981. It combines a concrete construction with a stone facade design.[citation needed]
History
Ludwig I of Bavaria began to collect contemporary art already as crown prince in 1809 and his collection was steadily enlarged. When the museum was founded, the separation to the old masters in the Alte Pinakothek was fixed with the period shortly before the turn of the 19th century, which has become a prototype for many galleries.
Owing to the personal preference of Ludwig I, the museum initially had a strong focus on paintings of German Romanticism and the Munich School. Also dynastic considerations played a role, as Greece had become a secundogeniture of Bavaria in 1832. In 1834 Carl Rottmann traveled to Greece to prepare for a commission from Ludwig I for a cycle of great Greek landscapes. These works were installed in the Neue Pinakothek, where the paintings were given their own hall.
The so-called Tschudi Contribution between 1905 and 1914 brought the Pinokathek an extraordinary collection of masterpieces of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Hugo von Tschudi was dismissed by Wilhelm II, German Emperor as a penalty for his exhibiting of Gauguin's The Birth of Christ in Berlin's National Gallery. He became the director of the Pinokathek. As general director of the State Collections, Tschudi acquired 44 paintings, nine sculptures, and 22 drawings, mostly from emerging French artists. Since public funds could not be used to purchase these works, Tschudi’s associates raised the money from private contributions after his death in 1911.
The space dedicated to painters of the Modernity was fixed at ca. 1900 by including Henri Matisse and Expressionism. Consequentially a painting of Matisse, which was part of the "Tschudi Contribution" ,is now displayed in the Pinakothek der Moderne.
In 1915, the Neue Pinakothek became the property of Bavaria. In 1938 the Nazi regime under Adolf Hitler confiscated a self-portrait of Vincent van Gogh, classifying the paintings as degenerate art.
Renovations
Since January 2019 the Neue Pinakothek has been closed for renovations.[3] Originally, it was planned for the building to remain closed at least until 2025.[4][5] The opening of the museum to visitors was delayed until 2029 in January 2022.[6][7]
Collection
The museum is under supervision of the Bavarian State Painting Collections, which houses an expanded collection of more than 3.000 European paintings from classicism to Art Nouveau. About 400 paintings and 50 sculptures of these are exhibited in the New Pinakothek.
International paintings of the second half of the 18th century:
English and Scottish paintings of 18th and early 19th centuries:
It has masterpieces of Thomas Gainsborough (portraits of Mrs. Thomas Hibbert and of Thomas Hibbert) (Landscape with Shepherd and Flock), William Hogarth (Richard Mounteney), John Constable (View of Dedham Vale from East Bergholt), Joshua Reynolds (Captain Philemon Pownall), David Wilkie (Reading the Will), Thomas Lawrence (The Two Sons of the 1st Earl of Talbot), George Romney (Catherine Clements), Richard Wilson (View of Syon House Across the Thames near Richmond Gardens), Henry Raeburn (Mrs. J. Campbell of Kilberry), George Stubbs (The pointer) and J. M. W. Turner (Ostende). The Pinakothek owns five works by Thomas Gainsborough, more than any other European museum outside the British Isles.
^Dan Karlholm (2006). Art of Illusion: The Representation of Art History in Nineteenth-century Germany and Beyond. Lang. p. 197. ISBN978-3-03910-958-6.
^Dan Karlholm (2006). Art of Illusion: The Representation of Art History in Nineteenth-century Germany and Beyond. Lang. p. 204. ISBN978-3-03910-958-6.
^Gerdom, Ilona (19 January 2022). "München: 41 Bäume fallen für Sanierung der Neuen Pinakothek". Süddeutsche.de (in German). Süddeutsche Zeitung GmbH. Retrieved 6 April 2023. Während es anfangs noch geheißen hatte, dass es bis 2025 dauern könnte, korrigiert Thiel-Lintner: Der Plan sei, zum Jahreswechsel 2027/28 "baulich fertig" zu sein. Wiedereröffnen könnten die Räume 2029.
^"FAQ". sanierung-neue-pinakothek.de (in German). Retrieved 6 April 2023. Wenn die Sanierung planmäßig durchgeführt werden kann, wird die Baumaßnahme nach derzeitigem Stand zum Jahreswechsel 2027 / 2028 baulich fertig gestellt. Im Anschluss folgt eine Einregulierungsphase der technischen Anlagen, sowie der Wiedereinzug der BStGS. Die Wiederöffnung der Neuen Pinakothek erfolgt voraussichtlich in der 2. Jahreshälfte 2029.
Lionel Gossman. “Making of a Romantic Icon: The Religious Context of Friedrich Overbeck’s ‘Italia und Germania.’” American Philosophical Society, 2007. ISBN0-87169-975-3. [1]