Museo Thyssen Bornemisza > Reviews > A gift from the Baron not to be ignored

Author's product rating:   

Prices
Is it worth visiting?
Transport links
Family Friendly

Advantages:	Stylish, rich collection, excellent facilities and ambience
Disadvantages:	none

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

The main art gallery in Madrid, El Prado is full of riches particularly its collection of Goyas and El Greco. But the Museo Thyssen Bornemisza should not be missed.

Lets start by talking about the gallery itself, which is very stylish and well run. Most of the staff seem to be highly elegant young women, all dressed in green blazers and blue skirts, and with excellent foreign language skills (in particular they all seem to speak English), and obviously well trained in “customer care”. I’ve never been in a gallery where the staff are so polite and helpful. In fact it’s a little disconcerting after experiencing the surly State employees of El Prado who seem to act like sheep dogs snapping at the heels of errant visitors. The impression is actually like wandering into one of those sets from a James Bond film, where the wealthy, but criminal, industrialist is surrounded by his staff of beautiful people.

The building is actually the restored Palacio de Villahermosa and is a very beautiful building in itself. The collection is held on three floors and the best thing is to follow the “official” route (described in the free pamphlets you can pick up on entering) and start on the second floor and work your way down. There is a very good bookshop with many books and other products available in English. In the basement there is a bar/café and as usual for these places, the prices are cheaper if you sit at the bar rather than having waiter service at a table.

The first thing to note about it is its extremely “difficult” name of the gallery. Where did it come from? Well, this collection The works of art on display were collected by
the Thyssen-Bornemisza family over two generations and were originally held in Switzerland. However the Spanish government and the Thyssen-Bornemisza family reached an agreement that the collection could be held, and the collection has now been permanently acquired by the Spanish government. The current Baron is very much behind the collection however, and quite honestly, the vast wealth of the family (they are a huge international industrialist concern) is evident in the overall style and ambience of the gallery. Having said that, the Baron is a very sincere and committed art collector and writes in the front of the gallery’s catalogue. My bequest as a collector is to share my paintings, and I can only repay God's gift by making it possible for more than one man to see and understand the talent of the artist". If only other collectors had that attitude.

The collection itself is full of riches and contains 715 paintings. They are displayed in chronological and historical sequence. The oldest paintings are on the top floor because it has lower ceilings and the paintings can be lit. The room numbers indicate the sequence in which they should be viewed, and this makes it very easy to find the painting in the catalogue – unlike El Prado where I found it very difficult to find references to any particular work. As I said earlier you should start at the top and work down, and this provides a wonderful panorama of the history of art.

The collection contains many famous works of art and as you go round you will recognise works you have seen in books or on television. There are some fine Piero della Francesca’s on the top floor and a world famous portrait of Britain’s Henry VIII by Holbein (you’re bound to recognise this when you see it). The collection of Dutch and Flemish painters is superb (I’m going to run out of adjectives soon!) and also on the top floor is a whole room of Spain’s master El Greco and also some fine Cannalettos. Two very fine works are The Supper at Emmaus by Matthias Stomer, and Esau Selling his Birthright by Hendrick ter Brugghen.

The first floor starts in the 17th century and covers Watteau and Chardin, including some excellent still-lifes. We then move on to 19th century American painters, some of which are unusual and very rewarding. The Impressionists are also on this floor; Manet, Pissarro and Renoir being well represented. There is a wonderful Degas painting of ballet dancers, and various works by Monet Van Gogh, Toulouse Lautrec, Matisse and Cezanne. What riches!

On the same floor, there are some German Expressionist paintings, obviously very significant but a school I know little about. These are rather disturbing works with strong colours and slightly distorted figures and faces.

The ground floor as we move into the major 20th century abstract movements is fascinating. Picasso is represented here (Harlequin with Mirror being one of the world-renowned work on display) as are modernist painters such as Mondrian, Miro and Kandinsky. The large works such as Jackson Pollocks are very well displayed in large rooms and there is a magnificent Dali, Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee. Hotel Room by Edward Hopper is stunning in the sense of loneliness and depersonalisation it suggests by the woman seated alone on a bed reading a timetable. Balthus, The Card Game is disturbing as are the distorted faces of Francis Bacon. There are some very modern works such as Roy Lichtenstein and other pop artists.

You leave the gallery where you started on the ground floor and if you’re like me you will sit in your hotel later and wish you had time to do it all over again on the next day. While El Prado is magnificent in its vast collection of classical paintings, the variety and style of Thyssen will be dominant in your mind when you reflect on your trip to Madrid long after you’ve returned home.