Munich – Die Pinakotheken (The Old, New & Modern Art Museums)

Munich, (German name München), is the capital and largest city of the German state of Bavaria. It’s also the 3rd biggest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg.

Munich is famous for its breweries and the Weissbier (white beer or wheat beer) is a speciality from Bavaria. When I first got to know Munich, I know it’s famous for beer, it’s the headquarter of BMW and its Oktoberfest – the world’s largest Volksfest, held annually in Munich. It usually lasts for 16-18 days with more than 6 million people from around the world attending every year. During this festival, of course, large quantities of beer are consumed.

However, today in this post, I’m gonna write about the three art museums first. They are all located in the art district of Munich-Kunstareal and very close to each other.

According to Wikipedia, “Alte Pinakothek’s monolithic structure contains a treasure trove of the works of European masters between the 14th and 18th centuries. The collection reflects the eclectic tastes of the Wittelsbachs over four centuries, and is sorted by schools over two sprawling floors. Major displays include Albrecht Dürer’s Christ-like Self-Portrait, his Four Apostles, Raphael’s paintings The Canigiani Holy Family and Madonna Tempi as well as Peter Paul Rubens two-story-high Judgment Day.”

What’s more, the Neue Pinakothek has one of van Gogh’s most famous sunflowers, Monet’s water lilies and Paul Cézanne’s “Still Life with a Chest of Drawers”, and the modern art museum has Dali’s “Das Rätsel der Begird” and Picasso’s “Sitzende Frau”.

Now let’s take a look at what’s in these art museums. Good news! On Sundays, the entry tickets to each of the three museums are all 1 Euro! 

If you wanna know more about the opening hours, admission tickets (full price, reduced price, free tickets etc.), tours, how to get there, contact info etc. of all the 3 museums please click here. (If you choose the language to English it redirects you to this page with basic info for all the 3 museums. If you wanna know more info about detailed info or for example, the exhibitions, the masterworks etc, all the info is only available in German. If you really wanna know some specific you can contact me, I’ll try to help you out.)

The Alte Pinakothek (Old Art Museum)

It is one of the oldest galleries in the world and houses one of the most famous collections of Old Master paintings. The name Alte (Old) Pinakothek refers to the time period covered by the collection—from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century.

The Museum

I’ll give you the floor plan here and you can see in general what collection they have there. However, this might not be 100% accurate, and if you wanna see something but you can’t find it, just ask the friendly staff in the museum. Most of them do speak English.

The Masterworks

The most famous piece of work here, I think, should be Selbstbildnis im Pelzrock by Albrecht Dürer. (Sorry all the names of the paintings here are in German……Well, you’re in Germany……) However, there are also works by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Pieter Bruegel D. Ä etc. If you are interested, please click here to know more (only in German).

  1. Vier Apostel: Hll. Johannes Ev. Und Petrus by Albrecht Dürer
  2. Bildnis der Madame de Pompadour by François Boucher
  3. Bildnis der Madame de Pompadour by François Boucher
  4. Das Schlaraffenland by Pieter Bruegel D. Ä
  5. Seehafen mit der Predigt Christi by Jan Brueghel D. Ä
  6. Die Heilige Familie by Jan Brueghel D. Ä
  7. Vulkan Überrascht Venus und Mars by Jacopo Tintoretto
  8. Die Hl. Familie aus dem Hause Canigiani by Raphael
  9. Madonna mit der Nelke by Leonardo Da Vinci
  10. Paumgartner-altar: Geburt Christi by Albrecht Dürer
  11. Susanna im Bade by Albrecht Altdorfer
  12. Selbstbildnis im Pelzrock by Albrecht Dürer
  13. Historienzyklus: Alexanderschlacht (Schlacht bei Issus) by Albrecht Altdorfer

Some Other Works

The Neue Pinakothek (New Art Museum)

The Neue Pinakothek focuses on European Art of the 18th and 19th century and is one of the most important museums of art of the nineteenth century in the world.

The Museum

I’ll give you the floor plan here and you can see in general what collection they have there. However, this might not be 100% accurate, and if you wanna see something but you can’t find it, just ask the friendly staff in the museum. Most of them do speak English.

The Masterworks

Here, undoubtedly, the most famous painting would be Van Gogh’s Sunflowers. The flowers symbolize here the sun, which has been understood as a symbol of life. As you know, there are more than just one sunflowers by Vincent Van Gogh but this one is one of the four initial versions, while other 3 are separately in London National Gallery, in private collection and destroyed in WWII.

Also, there are Monet’s water lilies, Cézanne’s still life with a chest of drawers and many more, if you are interested please click here to know more (only in German).

  1. Sonnenblumen by Vincent Van Gogh
  2. Blick auf Arles by Vincent Van Gogh
  3. Ebene bei Auvers by Vincent Van Gogh
  4. Stillleben mit Kommode by Paul Cézanne
  5. Der Bahndurchstich by Paul Cézanne
  6. Selbstbildnis by Paul Cézanne
  7. Margaret Stonborough-Wittgenstein by Gustav Klimt
  8. Seerosen by Claude Monet
  9. Die Barke by Édouard Manet
  10. Le Déjeuner by Édouard Manet
  11. Wohnzimmer mit Menzels Schwester by Adolph Von Menzel
  12. Riesengebirgslandschaft mit Aufsteigendem Nebel by Caspar David Friedrich
  13. Marathon by Carl Rottmann
  14. Italia und Germania by Friedrich Verbeck
  15. Ostende by Joseph Mallord William Turner
  16. Anne-Marie-Louise Thélusson, Comtesse De Sorcy by Jacques-louis David

Some Other Works

Pinakothek der Moderne

Pinakothek der Moderne is one of the world’s largest museums for modern and contemporary art and tbh, I’m not really into modern art but since Dalí and Picasso’s paintings are here. I decided to have a look. I believe, if you are interested in modern art, it’s worth a visit.

The Museum

I’ll give you the floor plan here and you can see in general what collection they have there. However, this might not be 100% accurate, and if you wanna see something but you can’t find it, just ask the friendly staff in the museum. Most of them do speak English.

The Masterworks

If you are interested please click here to know more (only in German).

  1. Das Rätsel der Begierde by Salvador Dalí
  2. Sitzende Frau by Pablo Picasso
  3. Femme by Pablo Picasso

Some Other Works

I guess that’s the three art museums in my eyes. If you’re interested I think you can check the links I provided and plan your visit there. I think I spent around a day visiting the museums but you can choose which one you wanna go and what you wanna see.

In my next post, I’ll show you some more of Munich – Marienplatz, Saint Peter’s Church, Frauenkirche, Olympiapark, etc. and for beer lovers, the Hofbräuhaus. See you then. 🙂

 

Munich – Die Pinakotheken (The Old, New & Modern Art Museums) was last modified: August 6th, 2017 by Dong

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