Joachim Wtewael (1566–1638), Venus and Adonis, Oil on panel; 36 x 48 cmHohenbuchau Collection, inv. no. HB 32 © LIECHTENSTEIN MUSEUM. Die Fürstlichen Sammlungen, Wien

STUTTGART.- The exhibition at the Staatsgalerie presents approximately eighty Flemish and Dutch paintings of the Hohenbuchau Collection, a selection which represents the core of that collection in terms of number and rank. A particularly striking feature of these holdings is the variety of themes it encompasses – from history painting, portrait and landscape to genre and still life. Apart from the Hohenbuchau Collection, hardly another recently assembled private collection reflects the thematic and stylistic diversity of Netherlandish painting in its heyday. 

Netherlandish Regions and Their Artistic Representatives

Antwerp, the artistic centre of the Southern Netherlands, is present in the form of outstanding works by the most important Flemish protagonists, for example Joos de Momper the Younger and Jan Brueghel the Elder, Frans Francken the Younger and Hans Jordaens III, Jan Brueghel the Younger and Henrick van Balen. Paintings by Jacob Jordaens and other pupils and employees of Peter Paul Rubens mirror his far-reaching artistic influence. The collection even includes a work by Rubens himself – a little-known “Portrait of a Capuchin Monk”. 

Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), Portrait of a Capuchin Monk. Oil on panel; 53.3 x 45 cm. Hohenbuchau Collection, inv. no. HB 92 © LIECHTENSTEIN MUSEUM. Die Fürstlichen Sammlungen, Wien

In contrast to the South, with Antwerp as its leading metropolis, the art world in the Northern provinces was not structured around a single centre. Utrecht, for instance, developed to become a stronghold of the so-called Caravaggists, whose founders included Hendrick ter Brugghen and Gerard van Honthorst. 

Haarlem made a name for itself above all in the area of landscape painting. The multifarious development of this genre is retraced in our show from the intimate Netherlandish “national landscape” practised by Jan van Goyen and Salomon van Ruysdael to its idealization in Jacob van Ruisdael’s waterfall scene. Bravura pieces by Gerard Dou as well as Frans and Willem Mieris stand for the leading role played by Leyden in the area of fine-painting. 

Highlights in the area of still life painting are the banquet pieces by Abraham Beyeren und Pieter Claesz. In the relatively small group of portraits, Aelbert Cuyp’s depiction of a child and the full-length figure likeness by Gerard ter Borch introduce splendid accents. 

Abraham van Beyeren, Prunkstillleben, Mitte der 1660er Jahre, Öl auf Leinwand, 118,2 x 167,6 cm, Hohenbuchau Collection © LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vienna.

Die Hohenbuchau Collection

The origins of the Hohenbuchau Collection date back to the 1970s. Named after the former family estate (Hohenbuchau Castle Park), it encompasses significant holdings of Netherlandish Baroque paintings. The collection owes its character and the distinguished selection of its works to the connoisseurship and intuition of its founder Otto Christian Faßbender and his wife Renate. 

The chief emphasis and spectrum of the HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION are enhanced by works from German, Spanish and Italian schools limited in quantity and exquisite in quality. 

Over the past twenty years, paintings from the collection have been on display in special exhibitions in many countries of the world. Since December 2007, the Hohenbuchau Collection has been under the administration of the Princely Collections in Vienna in the form of a permanent loan. In 2011, the Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna presented the entire collection for the first time within the framework of a comprehensive exhibition. In addition, a regularly changing selection of paintings from the Hohenbuchau Collection is featured within the permanent exhibition of the Gartenpalais Liechtenstein side by side with its superb holdings from the collections of the House of Liechtenstein. 

A comprehensive catalogue in German and English by Peter Sutton is available at the museum shop for 34.90 EUR for the duration of the exhibition. 

Karel du Jardin, Wide Southern Landscape with Herdsmen and their Flock, about 1675, oil on wood, HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION on permanent loan to LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vienna © LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vienna.

Frans van Mieris, Self-Portrait as a Merry Toper, 1673, oil on wood, HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION on permanent loan to LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vienna ©LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vienna.

Aelbert Cuyp, The Shy Little Hunter, 165[5?], oil on wood, HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTIONon permanent loan to LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vienna ©LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vienna.