Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Northern Baroque Splendor, The HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION from: LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vienna

Bruce Museum, One Museum Drive, Greenwich, Connecticut through April 12, 2015



Frans Snyders (1579 – 1657), Still Life with Fruit, Dead Game, Vegetables, a live Monkey, Squirrel and Cat; Oil on canvas, 81 x 118 cm; HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION, on Permanent Loan to LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vienna.

One of the largest and most varied collections of Northern Baroque art assembled anywhere in recent decades will be on view at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich beginning this fall. Northern Baroque Splendor, The HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION from: LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vienna will be displayed across multiple galleries at the Bruce through April 12, 2015.

The Hohenbuchau Collection was gathered by Otto Christian and Renate Fassbender and has been on long-term loan to the Collections of the Prince of Liechtenstein in Vienna, where it was exhibited in its entirety in the former LIECHTENSTEIN MUSEUM in 2011. A selection of some 80 paintings from The Hohenbuchau Collection was recently shown at the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart in Germany (11/08/2013 – 02/23/2014), and paintings from The Collection are regularly being displayed alongside The Princely Collections, in the permanent exhibition in Vienna as well as on touring exhibitions worldwide. The selective showing of The Hohenbuchau Collection at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich is the show’s inaugural venue in the United States. In April the exhibition will travel from Greenwich to the Cincinnati Art Museum in Ohio.

Primarily comprised of Dutch and Flemish seventeenth-century paintings, the collection exhibits all the naturalism, visual probity and technical brilliance for which those schools are famous. While many modern collections of Old Masters specialize in a single style or subject matter, the Hohenbuchau Collection is admirable for offering examples of virtually all the genres produced by Lowland artists – history painting, portraiture, genre, landscapes, seascapes, still lifes and flower pieces, animal paintings and hunting scenes.

“The Hohenbuchau Collection is not only remarkable for offering examples of virtually all the genres produced by Netherlandish Old Masters, but also for the rich diversity of size, format, and subject within each genre,” says Peter C. Sutton, Executive Director of the Bruce Museum and the organizer of the exhibition. “Particularly unique to the collection are the number of individual paintings executed by more than one artist, working in collaboration. Netherlandish artists tended to specialize, whether in figures, landscapes or still lifes, but they were not averse to collaboration.”

The collection is also distinguished for its emphasis on history painting, subjects sometimes neglected by modern collectors, featuring outstanding Mannerist (Joachim Wtewael, Abraham Bloemaert, and Cornelis van Haarlem), Utrecht Caravaggisti (Gerard van Honthorst and Hendrick ter Brugghen) and Flemish and German history paintings. Other strengths include genre scenes by the Leiden fijnschilders, Gerard Dou, Frans and Willem van Mieris, fine game still lifes by Jan Fyt, Hendrick de Fromantiou, and Jan Weenix, outstanding banquet pieces by Frans Snyders, Abraham van Beyeren and Joris van Son, as well as Dutch landscapes from the so-called Classic period by Salomon van Ruysdael, Jacob van Ruisdael, Allart van Everdingen and Aert van der Neer. The Flemish paintings include works by renowned artists such as Peter Paul Rubens, Jacob Jordaens, and Jan Bruegel the Elder, as well as excellent works by Joos de Momper, and David Teniers. There are also little-known paintings by artists once forgotten but today again held in high esteem, like Michael Sweerts.

“With its colorful diversity, naturalism and technical brilliance, the show will appeal to the general public, but there are also surprises for the specialist and connoisseur,” says Dr. Sutton, “for example, the only known signed pictures by several artists. This rare show affords the Bruce Museum a unique opportunity not only to share world-class masterpieces with Greenwich and surrounding towns, but also to offer a rare educational opportunity to learn from leaders in the field of seventeenth century Dutch and Flemish art.”

In addition to being the organizer of the Northern Baroque Splendor exhibition and a world-renowned Old Master scholar, Dr. Sutton is also the author of the 500-page, richly illustrated catalogue The Hohenbuchau Collection: Dutch and Flemish Paintings from the Golden Age (2011).

The Bruce Museum is a museum of art and science and is located at One Museum Drive in Greenwich, Connecticut. The Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm and Sunday from 1 pm to 5 pm; closed Mondays and major holidays. Admission is $7 for adults, $6 for students up to 22 years, $6 for seniors and free for members and children less than five years. Individual admission is free on Tuesday. Free on- site parking is available and the Museum is accessible to individuals with disabilities. For additional information, call the Bruce Museum at (203) 869-0376 or visit the website at brucemuseum.org. 

Images from the Exhibition :



Abraham van Beyeren (1620/21 – 1690)
Banquet Still Life
Oil on canvas, 118.2 x 167.6 cm
HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION, on Permanent Loan to LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vienna




Hendrick de Fromantiou (1633/34 – 1694)
A Still Life with Dead Partridge, Pheasant, and Hunting Gear, 1670
Oil on canvas, 61 x 48 cm
HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION, on Permanent Loan to LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vienna





Hendrick ter Brugghen (1588 – 1629)
A Laughing Bravo with his Dog (Diogenes?), 1628
Oil on canvas, 83.2 x 68.5 cm
HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION, on Permanent Loan to LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vienna




Jan van Goyen (1596 – 1656)
A River Landscape with a Parish Church, 1651
Oil on canvas, 55.5 x 67 cm
HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION, on Permanent Loan to LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vienna




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Jacob Jordaens (1593 – 1678)
Portrait of a Musician (a Self-Portrait?) with his Muse
Oil on canvas, 118 x 93 cm
HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION, on Permanent Loan to LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vienna











Frans van Mieris (1635 – 1681)
Self-Portrait as a Merry Taper, 1673
Oil on oval panel, 15 x 11 cm
HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION, on Permanent Loan to LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vienna 







Joos de Momper the Younger (1564 – 1635); Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568 – 1625)
A Hermit before a Grotto (A Mountainous Landscape with Pilgrims at a Chapel in a Grotto)
Oil on panel, 56 x 80 cm
HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION, on Permanent Loan to LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vienna





Paulus Moreelse (1571 – 1638)
Periander, The Tyrant of Corinth (625-585 BC)
Oil on canvas, 103 x 84.5 cm
HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION, on Permanent Loan to LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vienna





Aert van der Neer (1603/24 – 1677)
Winter Landscape with Skaters at Sunset
Oil on canvas, 98 x 126.5 cm
HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION, on Permanent Loan to LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vienna





Peter Paul Rubens (1577 – 1640)
Portrait of a Capuchin Monk
Oil on panel, 53.3 x 45 cm
HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION, on Permanent Loan to LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vienna





Adam Pynacker (1620/21 – 1673)
Southern Hilly Coast with a Sailing Vessel
Oil on canvas, 62.5 x 81.3 cm
HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION, on Permanent Loan to LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vienna 






Salomon van Ruysdael (1600/03 – 1670)
River Landscape with a Ferry, a Yacht and other Vessels, with a View of Gorinchem in the Distance, 1647
Oil on canvas, 96.5 x 133 cm
HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION, on Permanent Loan to LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vienna





Jacob van Ruisdael (1628/29 – 1682)
A Waterfall in a Rocky Landscape
Oil on canvas laid down on panel, 66 x 52 cm
HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION, on Permanent Loan to LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vienna





Daniel Seghers (1603 – 1676)
The Holy Family Surrounded by a Garland of Roses
Oil on canvas, 95.2 x 64.7 cm
HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION, on Permanent Loan to LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vienna 





Joris van Son (1623 – 1667)
Pronck Still Life with Overturned Silver Ewer
Oil on canvas, 80 x 116.8 cm
HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION, on Permanent Loan to LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vienna





Michael Sweerts (1618 – 1664)
Portrait of an Old Man Begging
Oil on canvas, 68.6 x 49.5 cm
HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION, on Permanent Loan to LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vienna





Simon de Vlieger (1600/01 – 1653)
Dutch Merchantmen in Rough Seas off a Rocky Coast
Oil on panel, 38.5 x 58 cm
HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION, on Permanent Loan to LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vienna




Gerard Dou (1613-1675)
A Woman Asleep
Oil on panel, 30 x 21.5 cm
HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION, on Permanent Loan to LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vienna





Joachim Wtewael (1566 – 1638)
Venus and Adonis
Oil on panel, 36 x 48 cm
HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION, on Permanent Loan to LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vienna




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Gerard Dou (1613-1675)
The Wine Cellar (An Allegory of Winter)
Oil on panel, 30.5 x 25.4 cm
HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION, on Permanent Loan to LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vienna