Noble Guests - Masterpieces from the Kunsthalle Bremen

The Alte Pinakothek and the Neue Pinakothek are exhibiting major paintings from the Kunsthalle Bremen which is closed for building work.

Thanks to the noble gesture of the Kunsthalle Bremen, the Neue Pinakothek is to gain five works. The loans include the brilliant tempera painting »King Rodrigo«, which Eugène Delacroix executed in just a few hours on 15 March, 1833 as a decoration for a festival for artists held at the house of the writer Alexandre Dumas. Even at that time, contemporaries saw proof of Delacroix' genius in this work. Three other paintings by Delacroix, including »Death of Valentine«, based on Goethe's »Faust«, enrich the holdings in the collections in Munich. In addition, a major work from the time of the French Revolution is to be seen - namely the portrait of Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac by Jean-Louis Laneuville, one of David's pupils. It is an example of the new approach to portraiture during the Revolution that does away with all status symbols, characterising the figure purely by his social virtues. Barère presided over the trial of Louis XVI, demanding the head of »le citoyen Louis Capet«.