Carl Schütz. View of Vienna from the Upper Belvedere (Canaletto view), 1784, pen and black ink, watercolour, 39 × 58,5 cm, Inv. GSA 14.937 ©: ALBERTINA, Vienna.

BERLIN.- In the exhibition View of the City, the Tchoban Foundation presents vedute, panoramas and views from the renowned graphic collection of the Albertina in Vienna. The show covers exactly 400 years, spanning from 1561 to 1961. It comprises miniatures and large- format panoramas, drawings with tonal colour palettes and depictions full of chromatic intensity, realistic views and abstract cityscapes.

The exhibition does not aim to delve into the essence of the city or explore what defines a city. Instead it presents drawings of cities both familiar and previously unfamiliar to the executing artists, reflecting the prevailing art movements of their times and oscillating between detailed and naturalistic to expressive and abstract styles.

The 32 selected views of cities across Europe, the Middle East and the Americas document the artists’ high level of skill, attesting to their masterly use of brush, pen and coloured pencil. They also afford ample evidence of their trained eye for choice of location, motif and detail.

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are represented in views by Dutch artists, including drawings by Joris Hoefnagel, Allert van Everdingen and Rembrandt. The Baroque era is portrayed above all by Wenzel von Callot and Carl Schütz. The great era of expeditions and diplomatic missions in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is captured in pictures by the travel painters William Hodges, Thomas Ender and Joseph Selleny. Among the works of the nineteenth century, the atmospheric watercolours by Jakob Alt and his sons Rudolf and Franz are particularly impressive. And from the twentieth century onwards, expressive and even abstract forms of representation come to dominate the cityscapes, as illustrated in works by Ludwig Heinrich Jungnickel, Oskar Kokoschka and Wilhelm Thöny.

The show is curated by Christian Benedik, long-time director of the Albertina’s architecture collection. A catalogue will be published to accompany the exhibition.

The Albertina in Vienna is one of the most significant art collections in the world. With over a million works, the museum covers seven centuries of art history, spanning the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance to the present day. This encyclopaedic breadth and the multitude of major works by both the most famous Old Masters and artists of classical modernism and contemporary art have made the tradition-rich museum in Vienna’s centre famous. Many of the Albertina’s works have long been part of humanity’s trove of images. Established on 4 July 1776 by Duke Albert of Saxony Teschen (1738–1822), from whom the museum takes its name, the Albertina houses one of the world’s oldest princely collections.

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn. View of London with the old St Paul’s Cathedral, ca. 1640, pen and brown ink, brown wash, 17,7 × 32 cm ©: ALBERTINA, Vienna.

Johann Gottfried Klinsky. Veduta of Dresdenʼs Old Town from the Neustadt bridgehead (Canaletto view), 1793, watercolour, white highlights, 59 × 86 cm, Inv. GSA 17.325 Credit: ALBERTINA, Vienna.

Hans Robert Pippal. The Old Town of Salzburg, 1954, pastel, 48,5 × 63 cm, ALBERTINA, Wien, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024