The Neue Pinakothek Munich

The Neue Pinakothek is an art museum in Munich, Germany. Its focus is European Art of 18th and 19th century and is one of the most important museums of art of the 19th century in the world. Together with the "Alte Pinakothek" and the "Pinakothek der Moderne", it is part of the Munich's art area.

The Neue Pinakothek - Munich

Its holdings amount to about 5,000 works of art, dating from the mid-eighteenth century to the early twentieth, with emphasis on paintings and sculpture of the nineteenth century. About 550 works are on display. Like the Alte Pinakothek, The Neue Pinakothek was founded by King Ludwig I of Bavaria. The building was destroyed during World War II. The ruin of the museum was demolished in 1949 and it was decided to construct another on the site.

When the Neue Pinakothek was opened in 1853, some 300 paintings could be exhibited. At that time, The Neue Pinakothek was the first public museum in Europe devoted exclusively to contemporary art. Following Ludwig's death in 1868, the authorities began making new purchases in 1880s. In 1990s, private donors contributed large and important works by artists such as Van Gogh, Manet and Gauguin among others.

The Museum reopened on 28th March 1981, designed by Alexander von Branca. Anyone walking through the Museum will obtain a clear impression of developments in art from the middle of the eighteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth. The visitor will notice not only the differences between 'schools' and individual artists but also a divide between works, sometimes of great historical interest or importance, that were typical of their period or highly successful in their own day and other works that conform better to our own understanding of what makes great art.


There are several paintings that caught my attention when I visited this museum. They are my personal favourite, here they are:

Madame Soler - Pablo Picasso

Although not a great follower of 'Expressionism' and Picasso, this one surely caught my attention. First because the painting is still in a lawsuit about its ownership.Secondly, because Madame Soler belongs to Picasso's 'Blue Period', a time when the artist was in Paris and turned for his subjects to the poor and the rejected, to those who inhabited the fringes of society.The deep melancholy of these works were emphasized by the graduated blues of the palette.Madame Soler was the wife of Picasso's tailor in Barcelona.

The Sin - Franz von Stuck

Franz Ritter von Stuck was a German Symbolist/Art Noveau painter. Between 1891 and 1912, Stuck painted many versions of this picture, in response to its success with the public.

Tired of Life - Ferdinand Hodler

Ferdinand Hodler is one of the most important Swiss painters of the late 19th and early 20th century. Hodler was one of the leading Symbolist painter, a proponent of 'Style Art'. His position in international symbolists are most evident in his large historical paintinings and his allergorical compositions, as well as in his portraits and landscapes all of which reveal his independent solutions.

Garden Bower - Caspar David Friedrich

Caspar David Friedrich was a 19th-century German Romantic landscape painter. He is best known for his mid-period allegorical  landscapes which typically feature contemplative figures silhouetted against night skies, morning mists, barren trees or Gothic ruins.

The Play - Honoré Daumier

Honoré Daumier was best known for his caricature works and he used the classic caricature techniques of physical absurdity to lay bare the cruelty, unfairness and pretension of the 19th century French society and politics.

The Poor Poet - Carl Spitzweg

Carl Spitzweg was a German romanticist painter and poet. He is considered to be one of the most important artists of the Biedermeier era. Three versions of the Poor Poet are known. It is thought that Etenhuber, a poet living in impoverished circumstances in Munich, was the model. Spitzweg  shows the poet writing in bed to keep warm, for there is snow outside on the roofs and he has no wood to heat the stove. But he seems unconcerned at his scant means and the leaking roof, and his pen in his mouth, he counts off the meter of the meter of his rhyme on his fingers.

Cinderella - Moritz von Schwind 

Moritz von Schwind was born in Vienna and, in his younger years, was friend with the composer Franz Schubert. His illustrations of fairytales and legends won him great popularity. Although his painting tendencies late in life went in a more realistic and natural direction, he remain true to his late romantic style. His paintings, distinguished by their polished surface and subtle coloration and with themes taken from the world of folk stories and fables, take their cues from a more graphic approach. Schwind was often able to bring the bizarre and fantastic closer to the more understandable and traditional.

In addition, The Museum has several great paintings from Van Gogh (Vase with Sunflowers, The Plain at Auvers, View of Arles); Claude Monet (Water Lilies, The bridge over the Seine at Argenteuil); Karl Blechen (The construction of the Devil's Bridge); Édouard Manet (Breakfast in the Studio, The Boat); Edvard Munch (Village street in Aasgardstrand); Francisco Goya (A party in the countryside, Plucked Turkey). 

Note: This blog is based on several books, sites and private visit to Neue Pinakothek Munich

Beethoven-Haus Bonn

If you have seen movies like The Age of Innocence, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, The Crime of Padre Amaro, Dead Poets Society, Mr. Holland's Opus, Traffic, A Clockwork Orange, The Company of Wolves, The Horse Whisperer, Howards End, The Pianist, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Far and Away, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Star Trek: Insurrection, L.A. Story, Saturday Night Fever, Fight Club, there is a great chance that you have heard Beethoven's musical pieces.

Ludwig van Beethoven is one of the world's most famous and influential composers of classical music. His music has been played all over the world for over 180 years. His best known compositions include 9 symphonies, 5 concertos for piano, 32 piano sonatas, and 16 string quartets. His most famous piece being "Für Elise" and "Moonlight Sonata".

Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany in December 1770. The house where he was born is now a Museum  and Studio of Digital Archives, which today houses the world's largest Beethoven collection. The exhibition rooms contain a selection of more than 150 original documents from the time Beethoven spent in Bonn and Vienna.

Beethoven-Haus Bonn

The Beethoven-Haus is located at Bonngasse 20, Bonn and is made up of two buildings which were originally separated. After their marriage in 1767, Beethoven's parents lived in the back house, toward the garden. The family lived in this house for a number of years and moved afterwards at least three times within the city of Bonn.

Here in his house, in Room 2, on the first floor, you will be able to see the earliest document of Ludwig van Beethoven's public performances is the announcement of a concert on March 26, 1778 in Cologne. You will also find Beethoven's first composition that was published in 1782 (9 variations for Piano on a March by Dressler), aided by his most important teacher in Bonn, the court organist, theater conductor and composer Christian Gottlob Neefe.

In Room 3, First Floor, displays the viola which Beethoven played in the orchestra during his time in Bonn. Augustusburg Palace in Brühl, the summer residence of the Elector, and his residence in Bonn were the most important locations in which the orchestra performed. 

Beethoven's viola

In room 5, there is organ manual from the Church of the Minor Orders (now St. Remigius) that Beethoven played regularly from his 10th year on. Also in the room, in the showcase, the first edition of the three early piano sonatas which he dedicated to the Elector are on display.

Beethoven left Bonn in 1792 in order to study composition with Joseph Haydn. He was supposed to come back to Bonn as a court musician at the end of his studies. The French occupation of the Rhineland in 1794 lead to the dissolution of the Electoral state, however, so that Beethoven remained permanently in Vienna. 

Beethoven's last grand piano

Room 8, Second Floor ushers the visitors into Beethoven's Viennese period. Evidence of Beethoven's deafness is found in the case on the left-hand wall. Already at the age of 30, Beethoven reported a growing difficulty with his hearing and the isolation resulting from it to his friend Wegeler. Ear trumpets were of only limited help so that Beethoven had to communicate with the aid of notebooks, the so-called "Conversation books". Exhibited in this room also, the piano identical in its construction to the grand piano presented to Beethoven by Thomas Broadwood, the London piano builder and the instrument built by the famous Viennese piano builder Conrad Graf, which was Beethoven's last grand piano. 

The two pianofortes are displayed here as they were positioned in Beethoven's last Viennese lodgings in the "Schwarzspanierhaus". Hanging on the wall above the two pianos is what is probably the most famous Beethoven portrait of all times, painted in 1820 by Joseph Karl Stieler. Exhibited as well is the string quartet instruments which Beethoven received as a gift from his patron, Prince Carl Lichnowsky.

Beethoven's Funeral

Beethoven's died on March 26, 1827 in Vienna in his lodgings in the "Schwarzspanierhaus". The funeral cortege on March 29, 1827 in which about 20,000 mourners took part, depicted in watercolour by Franz Stöber, reveals how very famous and acclaimed Beethoven was already during his own lifetime (Room 9). 

Digital Archives Studio entrance is in the Sculptures courtyard. It contains more than 5,000 digital documents. In addition there are explanations and recordings of all Beethoven's works as well as audio letters, music scores which can be listened to, virtual exhibitions and digital reconstructions of his last home.

Note: This blog was written based on various sites and the author's visit to the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn