Pieter Bruegel: Comprehensive exhibition - Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna

Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna
October 2, 2018 to January 13, 2019

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525/30 Breugel or Antwerp? – 1569 Brussels) View of the Bay of Naples c. 1563?, panel, 42.2 × 71.2 cm Rome, Galleria Doria Pamphilj © Rome, Galleria Doria Pamphilj

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From October 2 to January 13, 2019, the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna presents the first-ever major monograph show dedicated to the greatest Netherlandish painter of the sixteenth century: Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525/30‒1569). The exhibition commemorates the 450th anniversary of his death.

During his lifetime, Pieter Bruegel the Elder was already among the period’s most sought-after artists, with his works achieving exceptionally high prices. Only about forty paintings and sixty prints by him are all that has come down to the present day. The twelve panels in the Kunsthistorisches Museum are by far the largest collection of Bruegels in the world, a fact owed to 16th century Habsburg connoisseurs who already appreciated the exceptional quality of his works and strove to acquire these prestigious paintings.

Bruegel revolutionised landscape and genre painting, and his compositions continue to elicit varied and controversial interpretations. The depth and breadth of his pictorial world and
the perceptive powers of observation he employs in his depictions of quotidian life continue to fascinate all who encounter his works.

Museums and private collectors count Bruegel’s works among their most precious and fragile possessions. Most of the panels have never been loaned for an exhibition. By bringing together over 90 works by the master, the exhibition in Vienna has assembled for the very first time a comprehensive overview of Bruegel’s oeuvre: comprising around 30 panel paintings (i.e. three quarters of extant paintings) and almost half of his preserved drawings and prints, the show offers visitors a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to immerse themselves in the artist’s complex pictorial world, to study his stylistic development and his creative process, and to get to know his method of work, his pictorial humour and his unique narrative powers.

The highlights in the exhibition include, for example,

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525/30 Breugel or Antwerp? – 1569 Brussels)
The Haymaking
1565, oak panel, 114 × 158 cm
Prague, The Lobkowicz Collections, Lobkowicz Palace, Prague Castle
© The Lobkowicz Collections

The Haymaking from the Lobkowicz Collections, Prague,

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525/30 Breugel or Antwerp? – 1569 Brussels)
Two Monkeys
1562, oak, 19.8 × 23.3 cm
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie
© Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie / Christoph Schmidt

Two Monkeys from the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin,

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525/30 Breugel or Antwerp? – 1569 Brussels)
The Triumph of Death
Probably after 1562, wood 117 × 162 cm
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado
© Museo Nacional del Prado

The Triumph of Death from the Prado in Madrid,

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525/30 Breugel or Antwerp? – 1569 Brussels)
Dulle Griet
1563, panel, 117.4 × 162 cm
Antwerp, Museum Mayer van den Bergh
© Museum Mayer van den Bergh

 Dulle Griet from the Museum Mayer van de Berg in Antwerp,

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525/30 Breugel or Antwerp? – 1569 Brussels)
The Tower of Babel
after 1563?, oak panel, 59,9 × 74,6 cm
Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
© Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Photograph: Studio Tromp, Rotterdam

The Tower of Babel from the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam,

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525/30 Breugel or Antwerp? – 1569 Brussels)
The Adoration of the Magi in the Snow
1563, wood, 35 × 55 cm
Swiss Confederation, Federal Office for Culture, Collection
Oskar Reinhart ‘Am Römerholz’, Winterthur
© Collection Oskar Reinhart ʻAm Römerholzʼ, Winterthur

The Adoration of the Magi in the Snow from the Collection Oskar Reinhard 'Am Römerholz' in Winterthur,



 

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525/30 Breugel or Antwerp? – 1569 Brussels)
The Adoration of the Kings
1564
oak, 112,1 × 83,9 cm
National Gallery, London, U.K.
© The National Gallery, London 2018 

The Adoration of the Magi from the National Gallery in London,

 the drawings The Beekeepers from the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, (below)

 Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525/30 Breugel or Antwerp? – 1569 Brussels)
The Painter and the Connoisseur
c. 1566, pen and brown ink, 203 × 309 mm
Vienna, Albertina
© The Albertina Museum Vienna

and The Painter and the Connoisseur from the Albertina in Vienna.

Bruegel’s works will be arranged both chronologically and by theme, allowing visitors to study and appreciate his stylistic development and the impressive variety of his oeuvre. The  galleries will showcase both his masterpieces and series and groups reunited for the first time in centuries; in the smaller adjoining rooms we present the findings of recent comprehensive technological analyses, offering profound insights into the works’ evolution. We look at both Bruegel’s artistic beginnings as a draughtsman and graphic artist, and his innovations and vital contributions to the evolution of landscape painting.

One section of the show will focus on his religious works, bringing together numerous masterpieces including The Triumph of Death and Dulle Griet, (both above) both especially restored for this exhibition.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525/30 Breugel or Antwerp? – 1569 Brussels)
Christ Carrying the Cross
1564, oak panel, 124 × 170 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Picture Gallery
© KHM-Museumsverband

For the first time, Christ carrying the Cross, his largest panel and one that has also retained its original format, will be on show unframed and displayed so that both its back and front are visible – as though visitors were looking over the painter’s shoulder, seeing and appreciating the fragility of the wooden support and how it was constructed, and the outstanding quality of handling and paint layer, their perfection being one of the reasons Bruegel’s paintings have survived four and a half centuries.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525/30 Breugel or Antwerp? – 1569 Brussels)
The Suicide of Saul
1562, oak panel, 33.5 × 55 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Picture Gallery
© KHM-Museumsverband 

 


Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525/30 Breugel or Antwerp? – 1569 Brussels)
The Battle between Carnival and Lent
1559, oak panel, 118 × 164,5 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Picture Gallery
© KHM-Museumsverband

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525/30 Breugel or Antwerp? – 1569 Brussels)
Children’s Games
1560, oak panel, 118 × 161 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Picture Gallery
© KHM-Museumsverband
 

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525/30 Breugel or Antwerp? – 1569 Brussels)
The Gloomy Day
1565, oak panel, 118 × 163 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Picture Gallery
© KHM-Museumsverband \
 

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525/30 Breugel or Antwerp? – 1569 Brussels)
Hunters in the Snow
1565, oak panel, 117 × 162 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Picture Gallery
© KHM-Museumsverband

\

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525/30 Breugel or Antwerp? – 1569 Brussels)
The Conversion of Saul
1567, oak, 108 x 156 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Picture Gallery
© KHM-Museumsverband 


Pieter van der Heyden after Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Big Fish Eat Little Fish
1557
Engraving, 230 × 296 mm, first state of four
Vienna, Albertina
© Albertina, Wien 

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525/30 Breugel or Antwerp? – 1569 Brussels)
The Temptation of Saint Anthony
c. 1556
Pen and brush and brown and greybrown ink
215 (right) / 216 (left) × 326 mm
Oxford, The Ashmolean Museum, Bequeathed by Frances Douce, 1834
© Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525/30 Breugel or Antwerp? – 1569 Brussels)
View of the Ripa Grande in Rome
c. 1555/56
Pen and red-brown and dark brown ink, 207 × 283 mm
© Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth
Reproduced by permission of Chatsworth Settlement Trustees

A smaller room showcases works featuring a wealth of miniaturelike details and looks at Bruegel’s training as a miniaturist; its focal point will be the first-ever confrontation of both depictions of The Tower of Babel since they were in the collection of Emperor Rudolf II.

A selection of contemporary artefacts depicted in Battle between Carnival and Lent invites visitors to appreciate the wealth of details included in these compositions, to comprehend the meaning of the individual scenes, and to appreciate Bruegel’s unrivalled skill in capturing the material quality of depicted objects. We also question the painting’s traditional moralistic interpretation and showcase Bruegel’s perceptiveness as a social critic.

Using



Winter Landscape with a Bird Trap 

 

 and Massacre of the Innocents

as the starting point, the show looks at Bruegel and his workshop.

The final gallery presents Bruegel’s late works, offering a nuanced look at the artist long called 'Peasant Bruegel'.

In addition to

 Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525/30 Breugel or Antwerp? – 1569 Brussels) The Peasant Wedding c. 1567, oak, 114 x 164 cm Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Picture Gallery © KHM-Museumsverband

 Peasant Wedding

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525/30 Breugel or Antwerp? – 1569 Brussels)
Peasant Dance
c. 1568, oak panel, 114 × 164 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Picture Gallery
© KHM-Museumsverband 

and Peasant Dance,




the show includes his 'legacy-painting' The Magpie on the Gallows.

 Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525/30 Breugel or Antwerp? – 1569 Brussels)
The Birdnester
1568, oak, 59,3 x 68,3 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Picture Gallery
© KHM-Museumsverband

The show’s final highlight is the first-ever juxtaposition of The Birdnester

 

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525/30 Breugel or Antwerp? – 1569 Brussels)
The Beekeepers
c. 1568
Pen and brown ink, 203 × 309 mm
© Foto: Kupferstichkabinett der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin - Preußischer
Kulturbesitz Fotograf/in: Jörg P. Anders

and the monumental drawing The Beekeepers.

Even after the exhibition ends, a free website www.insidebruegel.net will for the first time offer profound insights into the paintings of Pieter Bruegel the Elder based on the most recent technological analyses of his works. Here visitors can interact with the master’s pictures using state-of-the-art technology, navigate the collection and study Bruegel’s complex pictorial world in unrivalled detail.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder
The Return of the Herd ( Detail )
1565 // oak panel, 117 × 159.7 cm // Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Picture Gallery, inv. no. 1018

 

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525/30 Breugel or Antwerp? – 1569 Brussels) The Tower of Babel 1563, oak panel, 114 × 155 cm Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Picture Gallery © KHM-Museumsverband

FRANZ MARC AND AUGUST MACKE: 1909–1914

Neue Galerie New York

Until January 21, 2019 

Musée de l’Orangerie 

March 6 to June 17, 2019

“Franz Marc and August Macke: 1909-1914” is an exhibition that explores the life and work of two German artists and the power of their friendship. In the four years prior to Macke’s death in 1914 (Marc himself died in 1916), they wrote each other scores of letters, visited each other’s homes, traveled together, and often discussed the development of their work. They shared ideas about art, and through their innovations helped create the movement known as Expressionism in early twentieth-century Germany. The exhibition will focus on Marc and Macke’s artistic relationship, how their lives intersected, and how their art was developed and received during their lifetimes.

Featuring approximately 70 paintings and works on paper, “Franz Marc and August Macke” is comprised of loans from public and private collections worldwide. While Marc has received acclaim in the United States, Macke has not become well known. This presentation at Neue Galerie New York is the first time that Macke’s work will be shown in an American museum exhibition, and the first exhibition in the United States on the relationship between these artists.



Hardcover
208 pages; 159 color illustrations, 23 b/w illustrations
Prestel, 2018
9.5 x 1 x 11.5 inches
ISBN 9783791358291

A fully illustrated catalogue, published by Neue Galerie New York and Prestel, will accompany the exhibition.

It includes contributions by leading scholars in the field, including Vivian Endicott Barnett, Erich Franz, Ursula Heiderich, Annegret Hobert, Isabelle Jansen, and Olaf Peters.

“Franz Marc and August Macke: 1909-1914” is organized by the Neue Galerie New York and the Musées d’Orsay et de l’Orangerie, Paris.

The curator for the Neue Galerie is independent scholar Vivian Endicott Barnett. After its presentation in New York, the exhibition will travel to Paris, where it will be on view at the Musée de l’Orangerie from March 6 to June 17, 2019. This exhibition is made possible in part by the Neue Galerie President’s Circle.



Image captions:
Franz Marc (1880-1916)
The First Animals/Die ersten Tiere (detail), 1913
Gouache and pencil on paper
Private Collection

August Macke (1887-1914)
Strollers at the Lake II/Spaziergänger am See II (detail), 1912
Oil on canvas
Neue Galerie New York
This work is part of the collection of Estée Lauder
and was made available through the generosity of Estée Lauder



August Macke (1887–1914), Four Girls, 1913. Oil on canvas. Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf. Photo: Museum Kunstpalast – Horst Kolberg – ARTOTHEK. 

Franz Marc, The Dream [Der Traum], 1912, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Franz Marc (1880–1916), The Yellow Cow, 1911. Oil on canvas. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection.

 

   Franz Marc, Die ersten Tiere

 

GRANDE DECORAZIONE. Italian Monumental Painting in Graphic Art

Pinakothek der Moderne
Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München
13.10.2018  ‐  06.01.2019

 

It was in monumental painting that Italian art reached its apogee. Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling and ‘Last Judgement’, the frescoes of Raphael, Pietro da Cortona and Tiepolo are among the most memorable creations of the human imagination.



One of the earliest exponents of Italian monumental art was Andrea Mantegna, among whose major works is the ‘Triumph of Caesar’, made up of ten, large-scale panels which were originally mounted on one wall.

Mantegna Werkstatt, Die Elefanten, 1490/1500
Variation zu Andrea Mantegna,
Triumphzug Cäsars, Szene V, um 1500
Kupferstich, 283 x 259 mm (Blatt)
© Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München

Around 1500, Mantegna, ever the innovator, also produced a version of this work as a copper engraving (fig.).

 

Andrea Mantegna,
Triumphzug Cäsars, Senators



From then on, wall and ceiling paintings of all sorts were reproduced as prints. Out of an old art form a new one was born, one whose aim was to translate large and complex works into a format which was easy to comprehend and to handle. The printed sheets could be admired anywhere and they conveyed the concept of the artworks they represented in a way which was easier to grasp than the originals themselves. The exhibition presents around 120 works which are astonishing for their size and for their extraordinarily striking appeal as fully developed works of art.

Marcantonio Raimondi, The Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence, 1520/27. After a drawing by Baccio Bandinelli for an unexecuted fresco in San Lorenzo, Florence. Engraving, 433 x 585 mm (Sheet) © Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München

Giorgio Ghisi, The Prophet Jeremiah, v. 1570. After Michelangelo, ceiling fresco, Sistine Chapel, Vatican, 1508/12. Engraving, 557 x 432 mm (Sheet) © Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München.

Gainsborough and the Theatre

The Holburne Museum

October 5, 2018 – January 20, 2019 

Thomas Gainsborough, Thomas Linley the elder, c. 1770, oil on canvas, 76.5 x 63.5, DPG140. By Permission of Dulwich Picture Gallery, London.

By bringing together some of Thomas Gainsborough’s finest portraits of his friends in the theatre, this exhibition will create a conversation between the leading actors, managers, musicians, playwrights, designers, dancers and critics of the 1760s-80s.  Gainsborough & the Theatre explores themes of celebrity, naturalism, performance and friendship through some of the most touching likenesses by ‘the most faithful disciple of Nature that ever painted’.

Bringing together some of Gainsborough’s finest portraits of leading actors, managers, musicians, playwrights, designers, dancers and critics of the 1760s-80s, this exhibition will explore themes of celebrity, naturalism, performance and friendship.



These include a 1770 portrait of the actor David Garrick,



a portrait of the Haymarket Theatre’s manager George Colman from 1778,



  and a 1777 painting of the French ballet dancer Auguste Vestris.


Gainsborough and the Theatre will include 37 objects, including 15 oil portraits by Gainsborough, works on paper (including satires, views of theatres and playbills) and ephemera from public and private collections across the UK.

Following the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, theatre became an increasingly popular pastime, with existing playhouses enlarged and others newly commissioned throughout London and the provinces – particularly in Bath, where the Holburne Museum is located. In 1759, 32-year old Gainsborough arrived in Bath, accompanied by his wife and two daughters. Having already garnered a reputation as a skilled portraitist, he soon found a keen clientele among Bath’s fashionable (and well-off) visitors.

Gainsborough’s arrival in the West Country coincided with the rising wealth and social status of leading actors, such as James Quin and David Garrick, both of whom he painted. His friendship with the pair opened more doors for him, both in Bath and then later in London. The two actors also enabled Gainsborough to explore naturalism in portraiture, just as they and their contemporaries were turning to less artificial forms of performance in theatre, music and dance.

Catalogue 

 
Based on new research this fascinating book draws together a group of works from public and private collections to examine, for the first time, the relationship that Thomas Gainsborough (1727–88) had with the theatrical world and the most celebrated stage artists of his day, such as James Quinn, David Garrick and Sarah Siddons. Gainsborough painted notable portraits of these and twenty others, including dramatists, dancers and composers. This publication firmly establishes the artist's place within the theatrical worlds of Bath and London and will show why the art of ballet, and in particular Gainsborough's sitters, rose to prominence in 1780 and examines parallels between Gainsborough's much admired painterly naturalism and the theatrical naturalism of Garrick and Siddons with whom he had personal friendships.