BERLIN (AP) — A significant German personal artwork assortment amassed over 4 generations is occurring large-scale present for the primary time in Berlin, with a who’s who of French artwork of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries at its core.
The Scharf Assortment has its roots in a group began greater than a century in the past by Otto Gerstenberg, who led a Berlin life insurance coverage firm. It is now within the arms of Gerstenberg’s great-grandson, René Scharf, and his spouse, Christiane, who’ve expanded it additional into up to date artwork.
The roughly 150 works occurring present this week at Berlin’s Alte Nationalgalerie vary in time from the early nineteenth century, with plates from Spanish grasp Francisco de Goya’s sequence “The Disasters of War” and “La Tauromaquia,” to fashionable summary works by German artists Katharina Grosse and Anselm Reyle. Compositions by Sam Francis and Jasper Johns convey an American ingredient to the gathering.
“We go from Goya to Grosse,” René Scharf stated because the exhibition was introduced Wednesday. He stated that he has a specific ardour for impressionism, cubism and up to date artwork, and hopes guests who see Grosse’s shimmering pink and blue “No title” on the finish of the present will see a connection to Claude Monet’s impressionist “Waterloo Bridge” from practically a century earlier.
On the coronary heart of the gathering are works by lots of the largest names in French artwork of the previous two centuries. Guests progress from the romantic work of Eugène Delacroix to the realist work of Gustave Courbet and the caricatures of Honoré Daumier, together with a sequence of busts of French lawmakers by the latter.
One in all Claude Monet’s earlier, realist works, “Farmyard in Chailly,” is displayed alongside later impressionist paintings such as “Steep Cliffs near Dieppe” and certainly one of his “Waterloo Bridge” sequence. There are works on paper and canvas by Auguste Renoir and Paul Cézanne, complemented by nudes and dancers by Edgar Degas.
Two of Pierre Bonnard’s main works are prominently displayed — the full of life and playful “Place Clichy,” depicting a Paris sq. near his studio, and “The Large Bathtub,” portraying the artist’s spouse. They’re proven near items by his shut pal Henri Matisse because the exhibition heads towards the cubism and the fashionable day with work from Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger and others.
Gerstenberg had amassed a big assortment of labor by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec by the point he died in 1935 and a variety from that could be a centerpiece of the present. There are lithographs from his “Elles” sequence, primarily based on his observations of intercourse staff in on a regular basis poses, and posters promoting stars of live performance cafes and selection theaters.
Scharf stated that, after the Alte Nationalgalerie approached him about exhibiting the gathering, “we asked ourselves what happens if we do nothing? Then maybe 30, 40 or 50 people per year will see the collection and only a very small part of it, because we can’t hang everything at home.”
Particular person work have been loaned to many exhibitions over time, “but at some point we said, ‘no, the collection deserves to be seen publicly,’” he stated.
“The Scharf Collection. Goya — Monet — Cézanne — Bonnard — Grosse” opens to the general public on Friday and can run till Feb. 15. Will probably be adopted by one other exhibition at Düsseldorf’s Kunstpalast, operating from March to August 2026, which can function among the similar work.
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Fanny Brodersen contributed to this report.
