Hamburger Kunsthalle

When Red Baron visited Hamburg in April during Passion Week, our group had a guided tour of Hamburg's art gallery. In the meantime, I blogged about other topics but never forgot to finish my Hamburg trilogy.

When I was in Hamburg in the past, I visited the new sections of contemporary art housed in a newly constructed annex, or saw special exhibitions at the Kunsthalle.

This time, an art historian guided us through the original part of the Kunsthalle. I was impressed because the charming lady focused her explanations on a few objects rather than showing us as many paintings as possible.

We started with a giant painting (520 × 952 cm) from 1878, "Der Einzug Karls V. in Antwerpen im Jahre 1520" (Entry of Charles V into Antwerp in 1520) by Austrian painter Hans Makart. The painter drew inspiration from entries in Albrecht Dürer's diary, written during the engraver's trip to the Netherlands. (Enlarge by clicking the picture and try to find Dürer.)

The style is called Salon Painting, named after the Salon in Paris, where artists presented works that reflected the taste of the Parisian ruling class. With historic and literary-mythological themes, the artists adapted in content and style.

Following this Bing Bang, we moved on to more serious business. We saw Caspar David Friedrich's Romantic painting, "The Sea of Ice."

Critics see Friedrich's exploration of shipwrecks as an allegory of Germany's failure to achieve unity in the political environment of the Restoration. A more concrete reference would be the North Pole expeditions, which came to public attention at the beginning of the 19th century. Some knowledgeable people interpret the painting of Das Eismeer against the background of the artist's personal setbacks. 

When the winters were colder in Europe, Friedrich sketched ice floes piled up near Dresden on the Elbe River, but here the eternal ice of the Arctic is meant, in which the failed ship signifies the powerlessness and transience of man.

Friedrich once said, "The painter should not merely paint what he sees before him, but also what he sees within himself. But if he sees nothing in himself, he should also refrain from painting what he sees in front of him."

On the admission ticket: An alienated wanderer.

Why didn't the art historian present us with Friedrich's best-known Romantic masterpiece, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog? The reason was simple:

Here is another wanderer watching Wind Turbines above the Sea of Fog:

As found on Facebook

Next was "The Hülsenbeck Children," painted in 1805–06 by the German Romantic painter Philipp Otto Runge.

The painting depicts three stages of childhood development, with the siblings playing in the open air in front of a fence. They are free and not confined or enclosed.

The youngest child blindly clutches a sunflower leaf while he opens his eyes in amazement. The older one has grasped the handle of the drawbar and energetically swings his whip, while the girl already shows herself responsible and gives a sign to the little one with her right hand.

And here comes one of my favorite impressionists, Max Liebermann, with a self-portrait.

Over almost forty years - until the outbreak of the First World War - Liebermann spent nearly every summer in the Netherlands. In his eyes, the simple life of the rural population and their close-to-nature, still unalienated existence left a lasting impression on the Berlin city dweller.

In addition, the impressive experience of the vast flat landscape speaks in all clarity from his large-format early main work, "The Net Mending Women," painted 1887/1889.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Riding in the Bois de Boulogne 1873

From 1890 onward, Liebermann transitioned from Realism to Impressionism, a style practiced in France for 15 years already.

Under the Tents 1900

Like Renoir, for Liebermann, bourgeois leisure activities became the defining repertoire of his painting, though on a lower level, as in the beer garden in Leyden.

Liebermann's artistic path was also shaped by his friendship with Alfred Lichtwark, the first director of the Hamburger Kunsthalle. In 1889, Lichtwark established the department "Collection of Pictures from Hamburg." He commissioned representatives of the avant-garde to paint motifs from Hamburg and its surroundings. 

Liebermann contributed to the Collection "Evening at the Ulenhorster Fährhaus" in 1910, following Lichtwark's idea, using familiar motifs to sensitize the public to modern art, i.e., Impressionism.

In their homeland, the three giants of German Impressionism, Max Liebermann, Max Slevogt, and Lovis Corinth, were known as Dreigestirn (triple star or officially translated triumvirate).

Here is a stamp commemorating Max Slevogt.

Charlotte Corinth at her Dressing Table 1911

The last painting we saw during our guided tour was Charlotte Berend-Corinth at her Dressing Table. She was a painter herself and the wife of Lovis Corinth. Once again, and spontaneously, Lovis paid homage to her beauty, this time in a bright room, bathed in the light of a large window, producing subtle shades of turquoise, blue, and white.

This painting follows the general subject of "Woman at the Toilet," characterized by the depiction of a lightly dressed beauty in an interior, sitting before a mirror and attending to her appearance.


We were at the end, but Red Baron continued to explore the adjacent rooms with German expressionists in droves.

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Girl at Her Toilet, 1915

And here we go again with "Woman at the Toilet," although the earliest expressionist painting in the Kunsthalle dates to 1903.

While the Dreigestirn, Liebermann, Slevogt, and Corinth still indulged in late Impressionism, Paula Modersohn-Becker painted Mother and Child in an expressionistic style as early as 1903.

Max Pechstein, On the Banks of the Lake, 1910

Emil Nolde, Tugboat on the Elbe,1910

Max Beckmann, The Bearing of the Cross, 1911

August Macke, Mother, and Child in the Park, 1914

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Two Against the World, 1924

And here are two "geometrical" painters from the Bauhaus:

Lyonel Feininger, East Choir of Halle Cathedral, 1931

Oskar Schlemmer, Stairway Scene, 1932

With some time left, I returned to the room with historical scenes, for Red Baron likes historical paintings.

Friedrich Karl Hausmann, Galilei before the Council, 1861

Anton von Werner, Graf Moltke in His Study in Versailles, 1872

Anton von Werner, the famous painter of the Proclamation of the German Kaiser in Versailles, surprised Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke while enjoying his stay in France.

Pasquale Miglioretti, The Sons of Edward IV, before 1867

Here is a piece of unsolved English history:

 
After the death of the English King Edward IV, his brother Richard had the king's sons, the two princes, Edward V, already crowned king at the age of twelve, and Richard of Shrewsbury, nine years old, locked up in the Tower of London.

Without further ado, Richard had declared his nephews illegitimate and ascended the throne himself in June 1483 as Richard III. The two princes were last seen in the summer of 1483. Were they murdered? This keeps the British guessing to this day. Since then, Richard's reputation as a power-hungry, brutal villain has preceded him, particularly after William Shakespeare stoked the legend. In his most popular drama, "Richard III," he called him a "hunchbacked poisonous toad." In the plot, Richard III becomes a ruthless, murderous uncle who commits all kinds of atrocities.

Were the princes murdered? Red Baron once saw a movie where the two brothers drowned in a barrel of red wine.

So far, the Church of England, with the support of Queen Elizabeth II, has refused to grant permission to test the bones found in the Tower of London. Other reports refer to remains believed to be those of Princes Edward and Richard, currently buried in Westminster Abbey. There are rumors that King Charles may authorize a forensic investigation, having stated on the record that he would be interested in solving the mystery.

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