 Jan Brueghel d.Ä. (1568–1625) The Garden of Eden Oil on oak panel, 59.4 x 95.6 cm © Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, on loan at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid  Philips Aertsz. Koninck (1619–1688) Panoramic Landscape, 1655 Oil on canvas, 83.5 x 127.5 cm © Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid 
Claude Lorrain (1600–1682) Pastoral Landscape with a Flight into Egypt Oil on canvas, 193 x 147 cm © Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid  Antonio Canal, genannt Canaletto (1697–1768) "Il Bucintoro" in Venice, ca. 1745-1750 Oil on canvas, 57 x 93 cm © Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid  Thomas Cole (1801–1848) Expulsion-Moon and Firelight, ca.1828 Oil on canvas, 91.3 x 121.9 cm © Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, on loan at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid  John R. A. Constable (1776–1837) The Lock, 1824 Oil on canvas, 142.2 x 120 cm © Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, on loan at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid  Emilio Sánchez Perrier (1855–1907) Winter in Andalusia. Birch Wood with Flock at Alcalá de Guadaira, 1880 Oil on panel, 45 x 31.9 cm © Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, on loan at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid  Claude Monet (1840-1926) The Thaw at Vétheuil, 1881 Oil on canvas, 60 x 100 cm © Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid  Henri Matisse (1869–1954) The Canal du Midi, 1898 Oil on panel, 24.2 x 36.5 cm © Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, on loan at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
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Landscapes from Brueghel
to Kandinsky The exhibition in honor of the collector Baron Hans-Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza 7 September 2001 - 25 November 2001
Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza's collection is one of the most outstanding private collections in the world. Over a period of fifty years he was able to more than double the exquisite collection of Old Masters begun by his father, augmenting the collection particularly by many artists and epochs not yet represented. Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza's personal passion was directed towards landscape painting. Spanning 500 years of painting, the exhibition presents the entire richness of landscape painting evolving from the late 16th to early 20th centuries. Landscape painting, functioning only as the backdrop for biblical or worldly scenes in early Western art, played an ever greater role as an independent genre with the development of perspective in the Renaissance. At the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th century, work produced by Flemish artists such as Roelandt Savery and Tobias Verhaecht present unfathomable-seeming 'worldly landscapes' in small scenes, yet also strong atmospheric and seasonal impressions such as in paintings by Jan Brueghel, the Elder. At the same time in the Netherlands realistic portrayals of native landscapes, executed with a fine aerial perspective and a richness of color, were becoming increasingly important. Ideal landscapes, composed pieces of scenery - filled with light and inspired by the poets of antiquity and bucolic poetry - are also characteristic of a further artistic movement, of which Claude Lorrain is considered the primary representative. In the following century, artists such as Watteau or Fragonard created landscape backdrops for light-hearted, idyllic scenes according to the courtly ideals of country life. An increasing interest in recapturing impressions acquired during one's travels led to the development of cityscapes as a genre, the most famous examples of which were created by Canaletto. Of particular interest to the European public are the little-known American landscape paintings of the 19th century. Influenced by the European landscape tradition, these paintings were dedicated to capturing landscapes of the New World, to "Exploring Eden". At the same time, landscape painting in the Old World was also witnessing a new upswing. In a 'rediscovery of the countryside", artists such as John Constable focused on the ordinary native landscape. Constable, for instance, endeavored to capture atmospheric impressions, thus paving the way for 'open air' painting. Impressionist painters such as Monet, Pissarro, Renoir and Sisley explored landscape and its colors under the influence of temporary light: as a consequence light and color dissolve form. Their post-impressionist successors such as Gauguin and van Gogh, however, re-stabilized form and began to partially abstract form from nature. Vital, powerful colors intending to give greater force of expression characterize the work of the Fauves such as Picasso, Braque, Matisse, and of the Expressionsts such as Kandinsky, Kirchner, Marc and Nolde. Although not exclusively dedicated to landscape painting, it remained their preferred subject. The exhibition will be accompanied by a 250-page 
catalogue, containing 90 color illustrations,
essays on landscape painting and on the history of the Thyssen-Bornemisza
and Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza collections. Short biographical information
on the artists and an index of literature is included. The catalogue is
available for DM 49,- / € 25.A 45-minute documentary film by Horst Cramer, "Thyssen-Bornemisza. The Collector - The Museum - The Exhibition" on the history of the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection as well as of landscape painting, including interviews with Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza, will be aired on TV on 19th September 2001 at 9 p.m. on 3 SAT. It will also be shown in the exhibition. email:
Dr.
Angelica Francke, Project Manager |
