Esterházy Collection Masterpieces at the Guggenheim

As part of a partnership, the Bilbao Guggenheim is hosting some exquisite works on paper from the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts. A selection spanning seven centuries of graphic creation in a minimalist staging that shows off the collection impeccably.

The Guggenheim in Bilbao is a mecca of 20th and 21st century artistic creation, where Old Masters are few and far between. It is administered by a foundation set up by Solomon R. Guggenheim, an American industrialist whose fortune came from his family’s mining and metallurgical activities. In principle, a whole world separated the Guggenheims from the Esterházys, a princely Hungarian dynasty who built up one of Europe’s foremost art collections. Purchased by the Hungarian state in 1870, this collection of thousands of antiques, paintings, sculptures, drawings and engravings now forms the core of the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts collections. This unexpected exhibition in Bilbao highlights a group of a 100-odd drawings and prints of outstanding variety and quality from the Esterházy collection, including works by Albrecht Dürer, Watteau, Claude Lorrain and Van Gogh.

Also worth reading: Italian Renaissance Drawings at the Fondation Custodia

From Albrecht Dürer to Vera Molnár

A chronological exhibition layout in 12 sections starts with some very rare 15th-century drawings by anonymous artists from Bohemia and Italy. Landscapes drawn by Hans Leu the Younger and Albrecht Altdorfer give particular radiance to the German Renaissance selection, and underscore the Budapest museum’s prominence in this field. Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael may shine in the counterpart Italian section, but prominent names in the German school dominate, with several sketches of lunatics, stags and satyrs juxtaposed by Dürer on the same page alongside a Saint George drawn by Lucas Cranach the Elder on gray-tinted paper, and a Christ by Hans Baldung Grien. Meanwhile, the Dutch Golden Age is represented by Rubens and Rembrandt, the Grand Siècle by Nicolas Poussin and Charles Le Brun, and 18th-century Venice by Francesco Guardi and Piranesi. The French 19th century provides another high point, with drawings by Courbet, Daumier and Rodin. Klimt, Cézanne and Picasso introduce a final room devoted to contemporary acquisitions, which link up with the Guggenheim Museum collections. With various less striking works by Sam Francis and Gerhard Richter, these stand out only for the presence of the Hungarian artists Vera Molnár and Dóra Maurer.

Landscapes drawn by Hans Leu the Younger and Albrecht Altdorfer give particular radiance to the German Renaissance group, and underscore the Budapest museum’s prominence in this field.

From one room to the next, archives in display cases detail the history of the Esterházy family and the Budapest collections, offering an exhibition within an exhibition. The exhibition benefits enormously from the expertise of the Bilbao teams, well-versed in clear and simple contemporary presentations. The drawings are hung at well-spaced intervals in rooms painted in different shades of lilac, designed to provide the greatest possible visibility despite the low light levels normally used for the graphic arts. The contemplative approach of contemporary curators is also evident in their concern to provide only brief commentaries. With no detailed notices to divert attention from the works themselves, the stage design is focused on the gaze, while descriptions of printmaking techniques are relegated to an adjacent gallery. It is a delight to see these masterpieces exhibited so sensitively, and we can only hope that other contemporary museums will pay tribute to Old Masters using similar techniques.

“Masterpieces on Paper from Budapest”, Bilbao Guggenheim Museum, Spain.
Until June 1, 2025.
www.guggenheim-bilbao.eus