The
Wallraf-Richartz Museum is one of the three major museums in
CologneCologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants...
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
. It houses an
art galleryAn art gallery or art museum is a space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art.Museum can be public or private but what distinguishes a Museum is the ownership of a collection. Paintings are the most commonly displayed art objects; however, sculpture, photographs, illustrations,...
with a collection of
fine artFine art describes any art form developed primarily for aesthetics and/or concept rather than utility. This type of art is often expressed in the production of art objects using visual and performing art forms, including painting, sculpture, music, dance, theatre, architecture, photography and...
from the medieval period to the early twentieth century. Part of its collection was used for the establishment of
Museum LudwigMuseum Ludwig, located in Cologne, Germany, houses a collection of modern art. It includes works from PopArt, Abstract and Surrealism, and has one of the largest Picasso collections in Europe. It also features many works by Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein....
in 1976.
Gothic collection
The
Madonna in the Rose Bower, shown at right, is among the Gothic paintings in the collection of the Wallraf-Richartz Museum. It was created by
Stefan Lochnerthumb|300px|Madonna in the Rose Bower .Stefan Lochner was a German late Gothic painter.His style, famous for its clean appearance, combined Gothic attention towards long flowing lines with brilliant colours with a Flemish influenced realism and attention to detail...
, who lived between 1410 and 1451 in Germany, mainly working in
CologneCologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants...
. He is considered a late
GothicGothic art was a Medieval art movement that developed in France out of Romanesque art in the mid-12th century, led by the concurrent development of Gothic architecture. It spread to all of Western Europe, but took over art more completely north of the Alps, never quite effacing more classical...
painter. His work usually has a clean appearance, combining the Gothic attention toward long flowing lines with brilliant colors and a
FlemishFlemish painting flourished from the early 15th century until the 17th century. Flanders delivered the leading painters in Northern Europe and attracted many promising young painters from neighbouring countries...
influence of
realismRealism in the visual arts and literature is the depiction of subjects as they appear in everyday life, without embellishment or interpretation...
and attention to detail. This painting is considered typical of his style. It was executed about 1450 and shows the Virgin and Child reposing in a blooming
roseA rose is a perennial flower shrub or vine of the genus Rosa, within the family Rosaceae, that contains over 100 species and comes in a variety of colours. The species form a group of erect shrubs, and climbing or trailing plants, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles...
arborArbor or arbour may refer to:*Arbor , a shaded garden area*Arbor or mandrel*Arbor, California*Arbor knot, a knot commonly used to attach fishing line to a fishing reel...
that is attended by Lochner's characteristic, child
angelAngels are spiritual beings found in many religious traditions. They are broadly viewed as messengers of God, sent to do God's tasks. Traditions vary as to the precise nature and role of these messages and tasks...
s.
Early Renaissance collection
Jacob van UtrechtJacob van Utrecht, also named by his signature Jacobus Traiectensis was a Flemish early Renaissance painter who worked in Antwerp and Lübeck.-Life:...
is the painter of the
altarpieceAn altarpiece is a picture or relief representing a religious subject and suspended in a frame behind the altar of a church. The altarpiece is often made up of two or more separate panels created using a technique known as panel painting. It is then called a diptych, triptych or polyptych for two,...
for the
Great Saint Martin ChurchGreat Saint Martin Church is a Romanesque Catholic church in Cologne, Germany. It was founded circa 960 AD on what was then an island in the Rhine, and was later transformed into a Benedictine monastery. The current buildings, including a soaring crossing tower that is a landmark of Cologne's...
in Cologne, dated 1515, which is now in the Wallraf-Richartz Museum. This painter is also known by another signature, "Jacobus Traicetensis". He was an early
RenaissanceThe Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe...
FlemishThe Flemish people , the Flemings or the Flemish are the over six million people of Flanders, the northern region of the country Belgium — and the majority of all Belgians....
painter who worked in
Antwerp||-||-||-||}Antwerp is a city and municipality in Belgium and the capital of the Antwerp province in Flanders, one of Belgium's three regions. Antwerp's total population is 472,071 and its total area is , giving a population density of 2,308 inhabitants per km²...
and
LübeckThe Hanseatic City of Lübeck is the second largest city in Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany. It was for several centuries the "capital" of the Hanseatic League and because of its Brick Gothic architectural heritage is on UNESCO's list of World...
, and his lifespan is thought to have been from 1479 to sometime after 1525. In addition to Jacobus Traicetensis, he also signed some of his artworks with his real surname, Claez.
Very little is known about the painter. Research on this important Flemish artist did not begin until the end of nineteenth century. Although it is not certain, it appears that he was born in Utrecht. It is assumed that he became a citizen of Antwerp around 1500 and he is recorded as a "free master craftsman" of the Guild of St Luke there from 1506 to 1512.
From 1519 to 1525 he is recorded as a member of the Leonardsbruderschaft ("Leonard's Brotherhood"), a religious confraternity of merchants in Lübeck among whose ranks the leaders of the Protestant Reformation in the 1530s could be found. Nothing else has been discovered about him.
Among other works from the
Early RenaissanceThe early Renaissance era signaled a new generation of art. It started early 14th century and soared all the way to the 16th century where the world of art was reborn and reshaped. This was mainly represented in the northern part of Europe where it later matured and got more refined. This period...
in the collection is
Adoration of the Child (Bosch)Adoration of the Child is a painting by Hieronymus Bosch. It is currently in the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne.Like a few other Bosch paintings, this one portrays the baby Jesus and Mary....
by Hieronymous Bosch.
Impressionist collection
The Wallraf-Richartz collection includes the work of
ImpressionistImpressionism was a 19th-century art movement that began as a loose association of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence in the 1870s and 1880s...
painterPainting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . In art, the term describes both the act and the result, which is called a painting. Paintings may have for their support such surfaces as walls, paper, canvas, wood, glass, lacquer, clay or concrete...
,
Berthe MorisotBerthe Morisot was a painter and a member of the circle of painters in Paris who became known as the Impressionists. Undervalued for over a century, possibly because she was a woman, she is now considered among the first league of Impressionist painters.In 1864, she exhibited for the first time in...
, which was painted in 1881, and is entitled,
Child among staked roses or "Kind zwischen Stockrosen".
In 1864, paintings by Morisot began to be admitted for
exhibitionArt exhibitions are traditionally the space in which art objects meet an audience. The exhibit is universally understood to be for some temporary period unless, as is rarely true, it is stated to be a "permanent exhibition". In American English, they may be called "exhibit", "exposition" or...
in the highly esteemed Salon de Paris. Sponsored by the government and judged by
academicianThe title Academician denotes a Full Member of an art, literary, or scientific academy.In many countries it is a honorary title."Academician" may also be a functional title and denote a full member of the National Academy of Sciences in those countries where the academy has a strong influence on...
s, the Salon is the annual juried exhibition of the best new paintings and sculptures, the official art exhibition of the
Académie des beaux-artsThe Académie des Beaux-Arts is a French learned society. It is one of the five academies of the Institut de France.It was created in 1795 as the merger of the:...
in Paris.
Her work continued to be selected for exhibition in the salon for ten years before, in
1874-Events:*First Impressionist exhibition is held in a private studio outside the official Paris Salon; Louis Leroy in the French satirical newspaper Le Charivari coins the term "impressionism".*Berthe Morisot marries Eugene, brother of Édouard Manet....
, she joined the "rejected" Impressionists in the first of their own exhibitions. Organized by
CézannePaul Cézanne was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century...
,
DegasEdgar Degas
[p] , born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas , was a French artist famous for his work in painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing. He is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism although he rejected the term, and preferred to be called a realist...
,
MonetClaude Monet also known as Oscar Claude Monet or Claude Oscar Monet
[ giverny.org...]
, Morisot,
PissarroCamille Pissarro was a French Impressionist painter. His importance resides not only in his visual contributions to Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, but also in his patriarchal standing among his colleagues, particularly Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin.-Early life and work:Jacob-Abraham-Camille...
,
RenoirPierre-Auguste Renoir was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style...
, and
SisleyAlfred Sisley was an English Impressionist landscape painter who was born, and spent most of his life, in France. Sisley is generally recognized as the most consistent of the Impressionists in his dedication to painting landscape en plein air...
, it was held at the studio of the
photographerA photographer is a person who takes photographs using a camera. A professional photographer uses photography to make a living whilst an amateur photographer does not earn a living and typically takes photographs for pleasure and to record an event, place or person for future enjoyment.A...
,
NadarFélix Nadar was the pseudonym of Gaspard-Félix Tournachon , a French photographer, caricaturist, journalist, novelist and balloonist. Some photographs by Nadar are marked "P. Nadar" for "Photographie Nadar" .-Life: born in April 1820 in Paris...
.
American pop art retrospective
James RosenquistJames Rosenquist is an American artist and one of the protagonists in the pop-art movement.-Background and education:...
, born on November 29, 1933, is an acclaimed
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
artist. He was born in Grand Forks, North Dakota. In junior high school, Rosenquist won a short-term scholarship to study at the
Minneapolis School of ArtMinneapolis College of Art and Design is a private, non-profit four-year and post-graduate college specializing in the visual arts. Located in the Whittier neighborhood of Minneapolis, MCAD enrolls roughly 750 fine art and design students to engage in areas such as illustration, graphic design,...
and subsequently studied painting at the
University of MinnesotaThe University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States...
from 1952 to 1954. In 1955 he moved to
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
on
scholarshipA scholarship is an award of access to an institution, or a financial aid award for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...
to study at the
Art Students LeagueThe Art Students League of New York is an art school located on West 57th Street in New York City. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists, and has maintained for over 130 years a tradition of offering reasonably priced classes on a...
. From 1957 to 1960, he earned his living as a
billboardA billboard is a large outdoor advertising structure , typically found in high traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertisements to passing pedestrians and drivers...
painter. This was perfect training, as it turned out, for an artist about to explode onto the
pop artPop art is a visual art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
scene.
The Wallraf-Richartz Museum participated in his first early career
retrospectiveRetrospective generally means to take a look back at events that already have taken place. For example, the term is used in medicine, describing a look back at a patient's medical history or lifestyle....
in 1972 in conjunction with the
Whitney Museum of American ArtThe Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", is an art museum with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century American art. Located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street in New York City, the Whitney's permanent collection contains more than 18,000 works in a wide variety of...
, in New York. Since that retrospective, he has been the subject of several gallery and museum exhibitions, both in the United States and Europe.
Monet forgery discovered
On February 14, 2008, the Wallraf-Richartz Museum announced that
On the Banks of the Seine by Port Villez, attributed to
Claude MonetClaude Monet also known as Oscar Claude Monet or Claude Oscar Monet
[ giverny.org...]
, was a forgery. The discovery was made when the painting was examined by restorers prior to an upcoming Impressionism exhibition. X-ray and infrared testing revealed that a "coloress substance" had been applied to the canvas to make it appear older. The picture was acquired by the museum in 1954. The museum, which will keep the forgery, still has five authentic Monet paintings in its collection.
External links
- http://www.museenkoeln.de/english/wallraf-richartz-museum/