Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza (1921-2002) and German Expressionism
1947
At his father’s death in 1947, Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza inherits most of his collection. Over the following years, he acquires at auction the works put up for sale by his siblings.
1948
The picture gallery at Villa Favorita opens to the public for the first time.
1958
The baron approaches the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam and the Museum Folkwang in Essen about showing the collection in the cities where his main businesses are based.
The Brücke 1905−1913 exhibition at the Museum Folkwang features many works from the personal collection of Roman Norbert Ketterer, owner of the Stuttgarter Kunstkabinett auction house and Baron Thyssen’s future mentor in German Expressionist art.
1959
In the autumn, the Niarchoses invite Jack and Drue Heinz, David and Peggy Rockefeller, and Baron and Baroness Thyssen-Bornemisza on a week’s cruise around the Aegean on their schooner Créole. David Rockefeller and Hans Heinrich meet for the first time and become close friends.
1960
Meisterwerke des deutschen Expressionismus exhibition in Bremen. Of the 160 works from Ketterer’s private collection on show, 9 are later acquired by the baron.
The Museum Folkwang opens in its new premises. The selection of German Expressionist works listed in the accompanying catalog – of which the baron kept a copy in his Lugano library – may have guided his first steps in collecting modern art.
1961
At the beginning of May, the baron and his wife attend the Stuttgarter Kunstkabinett’s 36th auction. After hard-fought bidding, they win Nolde’s watercolor Young Couple (about 1931−35), among other works. Ketterer gives them a white carnation for breaking a record. Soon afterwards, Ketterer invites the baron and baroness to visit the exhibition Meisterwerke des deutschen Expressionismus in Zurich. Ketterer, then in need of cash, offers to sell the baron the Kirchner paintings Doris with Ruff Collar (about 1906) and Fränzi in front of a Carved Chair (1910). Following this initial deal, the baron goes on to acquire 9 of Ketterer’s best paintings by Heckel, Kirchner, Pechstein and Schmidt-Rottluff.
In June, the baron starts purchasing German Expressionist works from various international galleries.
1962
After the 37th auction, Ketterer closes the Stuttgarter Kunstkabinett and puts an end to his activity as an auctioneer. He also moves away from Germany and settles in Campione d’Italia, by Lake Lugano, where he later opens the R. N. Ketterer gallery. That year the baron starts lending Expressionist works to international exhibitions.
1963
Ketterer hosts the Moderne Kunst I exhibition at his new gallery. The baron visits the show and acquires canvases by Feininger and Kirchner. To establish the price of each picture – as Ketterer later recounted – they would each write down a sum on separate pieces of paper. Although it was ultimately the gallery owner’s price that counted, the baron’s was usually higher.
1964
Hans Heinrich plans to hold a small exhibition of 15 German Expressionist works at Villa Favorita. However, there is no documentary evidence that the show actually took place.
In September, the baron visits Ketterer’s gallery and writes in the visitors’ book: “Expressionism is a drug / here I am again [...].”
1974
In response to the rapid growth of the collection, Hans Heinrich publishes The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection of Modern Paintings, a guidebook written by historian Hanna Kiel.
1975
Insufficient space to show 19th and 20th century works in the gallery at Villa Favorita prompts Hans Heinrich to organize a series of traveling exhibitions of the modern masters in the collection. The first is held in the Kunsthalle in Bremen.
That year the baron purchases a major work by Kandinsky in Milan, Picture with Three Spots (1914)
1978
The baron acquires another 2 prominent pieces for his collection of German Expressionist art in New York: Metropolis (1916−17) by Georges Grosz and The Dream (1912) by Franz Marc.
1983
Apollo magazine devotes a special issue to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection. It includes the baron’s widely quoted article “German Expressionism: A Personal Choice.”
1984
Exhibition of Modern Masters from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. In 1985−86 the show travels to Nuremberg, Düsseldorf, Florence, Paris, Madrid (Pablo Ruiz Picasso rooms in the Biblioteca Nacional) and Barcelona (Palau de la Virreina)
1987
This year sees the baron’s last acquisition of a work from Ketterer’s gallery in Campione d’Italia: a monumental canvas by Kirchner, Curving Bay (about 1914).
1989
Villa Favorita hosts the first exhibition devoted exclusively to German Expressionist art in the collection, Espressionismo. Capolavori della collezione Thyssen-Bornemisza. Historian Peter Vergo is responsible for the selection of works and the catalog
1992
Peter Vergo publishes a monograph, Twentieth-Century German Painting: The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Sotheby’s, London. The Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza opens in Madrid
1993
The Spanish state acquires the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza collection. Approximately 125 of the baron’s works, including several by German Expressionist artists, pass into the personal collection of his fifth wife, Carmen Cerveza. Further Expressionist works go to other members of the Thyssen family.