History

1818
Crown prince Ludwig, later to become 1825 King of Bavaria from 1825 onwards, uses private funds to acquire the first pictures by young painters in Rome, whose aim is the renewal of art in both spiritual-religious and national terms: Wilhelm Schadow’s „Holy Family“ (1818), Heinrich Hess’ Portrait of Marquess Marianna Florenzi (1824) and Friedrich Overbeck’s „Italia and Germania“ (1832). These works by the so called „Nazarenes“ are at the heart of the Bavarian king’s  rapidly growing collection of contemporary art, which is soon to become the most significant of  its kind in Germany. 

 

1838
Carl Rottmann begins work on the cycle of Greek landscapes commissioned by Ludwig I. By 1850, he has produced 23 paintings. Created on large, transportable plaster boards, they were originally intended to be displayed in the arcades of the ‘Hofgarten’) (court gardens) adjoining the Munich Royal ‘Residenz’ Palace. After several alterations to this plan, the completed Cycle finally goes on display in a large room of the Neue Pinakothek.

 

1841
Ludwig I. acquires the collection of Leo von Klenze, which consists of 58 paintings of landscapes and genre paintings by contemporary artists: among them Carl Rottmann, Franz Ludwig Catel, Georg von Dillis, Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld and Peter Hess. In the same year, he commissions Wilhelm Kaulbach with the monumental painting „The Destruction of Jerusalem“, which subsequently is to hang in the Middle Room of the Neue Pinakothek. 

 

1846 
The foundation stone is laid to mark construction of the Neue Pinakothek, which is to be built according to the plans of Friedrich von Gärtner und August von Voit on the site directly opposite the Alte Pinakothek. The funds for the building come from the king’s private coffers. In his official foundation speech Ludwig I. designates the museum to „paintings from this and future centuries“. 

 

1853
On the 25th October, the Neue Pinakothek opens its doors to the public. It is the first museum in the world to devote itself to a permanent showing of paintings by contemporary artists. Ludwig I. continues to increase the size of the collection by acquiring more pictures. Among the outstanding works acquired in latter years are Piloty’s „Seni before Wallenstein’s Corpse“(1855) and Böcklin’s „Pan in the Reeds“ (1859). 

 

1868
In the year King Ludwig I. died, the Neue Pinakothek is in possession of 425 paintings. Royal acquisitions for the Neue Pinakothek do not continue after the death of Ludwig. The few purchases made by Ludwig II. include Feuerbach’s „Medea“ (1870) and Piloty’s „Thusnelda Led in Germanicus’ Triumph“ (1874). Instead of the king, it is now the Bavarian state that begins, albeit cautiously, to acquire paintings by contemporary artists. These, too, are displayed in the Neue Pinakothek. Among early acquisitions are predominantly works by Munich painters such as Franz Defregger, Adolf Lier and Joseph Wenglein. 

 

1886
The Bavarian state allocates an annual budget of 10.000 Reichsmarks to be spent specifically on the acquisition of contemporary paintings and sculptures. This sum is raised considerably in 1890 to 90.000 Reichsmarks. These funds are used to purchase primarily works from the major, internationally acclaimed art exhibitions at Munich’s Glaspalast. and subsequently exhibitions of the Munich Secession, too. The selected works are not restricted to just South German or German-speaking artists but include those by contemporary Scandinavian, English or Dutch painters as well. 

 

1891
The friend and patron of Hans von Marées, Conrad Fiedler, donates nineteen works by the artist to the museum’s collection, among them the triptychs „Hesperides“ and „Courtship“. At the annual exhibition of the Munich Glaspalast Max Liebermann’s „Woman with Goats in the Dunes” is purchased. 

 

1909
Hugo von Tschudi is appointed General Director of the „Staatliche Gemäldesammlungen“ and initiates acquisition of 44 paintings, nine sculptures and 22 drawings of predominantly recent French artists. When it was established the works could not be purchased through public funding, it was Heinz Braune – a close colleague of Tschudi (who had died in 1911), Tschudi’s Berlin patron Eduard Arnhold and Paul and Robert von Mendelssohn who succeeded in raising the necessary funds through private donations. The so called Tschudi Donations include principal works in the museum’s collection, such as Gustave Courbet’s „Apple Still Life “ and „Horse Bolting“, Edouard Manet’s „Frühstück in the Studio“, Claude Monet’s „Seine Bridge at Argenteuil“, Vincent van Gogh’s „View of Arles“ and „Sun Flowers“, Paul Gauguin’s “Birth”, Paul Cézanne’s “Still Life with Chest of Drawers“ and self portrait, as well as Honoré Daumier’s „Drama“ and Ferdinand Hodler’s „Student at Jena“. 

 

1915
The building of the Neue Pinakothek is transferred from the property of the royal household to state ownership. However, the king’s part of the museum collection remains within the private assets of the House of der Wittelsbach and is incorporated in the newly founded Wittelsbach Compensation Fund of 1923.

 

1919
The consistently growing size of the collection means a thorough-going re-arrangement of the gallery’s space is necessary. Those more recent works that are regarded as ground-breaking - among them many French works from the Tschudi Donations but also the paintings of Hans von Marées – are given a separate home and from 1920 onwards displayed in the „Neue Staatsgalerie”, which is located in the exhibition building at Königsplatz.  

 

1944
The building of the Neue Pinakothek is badly damaged by bombs. In 1948 permission is granted to demolish the ruins. Selected works from the collection of the Neue Pinakothek go on provisional display at the Haus der Kunst in the Prinzregentenstraße in 1947. 

 

1967
Winner of the contest to build a new gallery on the site of the former Neue Pinakothek is the design of the Munich architect Alexander Freiherr von Branca. In 1975 the foundation stone is laid for what is today’s building. It comprises not only the Neue Pinakothek but also the administration of the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen and the Doerner Institute. 

 

1981
The 28th March sees the opening of the Neue Pinakothek. The paintings and sculptures on display range from international Classicism to fin du siécle art at the turn of the 19th to the 20th centuries. In order to show the evolution of 19th century painting towards naturalness and artistic issues of form, works of 18th century English painting and also those by Goya are incorporated into the Neue Pinakothek.  Until then, they had been exhibited in the Alte Pinakothek. They are now the point of departure for today’s gallery tour. The works of the French and German Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, International Symbolism and Jugendstil mark the transition to the 20th century. A separate room is dedicated exclusively to the work of Hans von Marées.At the same time, 34 paintings belonging to the impressive collection of the Schweinfurt industrialist Georg Schäfer are given their own room. (However, in 2000, they moved to the newly inaugurated Museum Georg Schäfer in Schweinfurt).  

 

2003
On 25th October, the Neue Pinakothek celebrates its 150th anniversary. To mark the occasion, many of the gallery’s works are newly hung and the Rottmann Room is inaugurated to show 14 wall paintings from Carl Rottmann’s Greek Cycle in the Neue Pinakothek for the first time since 1939.