In 2023, the centenary year of the founding of the Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art, 74 works from the collection of the Ukrainian museum were transported to Berlin in order to guarantee their safety from advancing Russian forces and air strikes. The paintings, most of which had been brought unframed, were treated by conservators at the Gemäldegalerie and hung in newly made frames; now 60 of them are being exhibited alongside 25 works from the Gemäldegalerie’s collection, in an exhibition which aims to shed light on this remarkable collection and remind viewers of the importance of protecting cultural artefacts (24 January–22 June). Among the works on display are a Madonna from 1519 by Francesco Granacci, an early 17th-century miniature of paradise by Roelant Savery, and later works by Domenico Morelli, Emile Claus, Eugen Kampf and others. The show also features two paintings from Frans Hals’s Four Evangelists series, which were on load in Vilnius when the Russian invasion took place and were brought to Berlin in May last year, where they formed part of the touring exhibition ‘Frans Hals: Master of the Fleeting Moment’.
Find out more from the Gemäldegalerie’s website.
Preview below | View Apollo’s Art Diary
Enthroned Madonna with Child and Saint John the Baptist (1519), Francesco Granacci. Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art/Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Photo: Christoph Schmidt/Museum for Western and Eastern Art, Odesa
Paradise (1618/28), Roelant Savery. Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art/Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Photo: Christoph Schmidt/Museum for Western and Eastern Art, Odesa
Portrait of the Artist’s Wife with Her Son (1783), Johann Baptist von Lampi the Elder. Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art/Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Photo: Anja Lindner-Michael/Thuja Seidel/Museum for Western and Eastern Art, Odesa
Argument between Coachmen (1893), Jules-Alexis Muenier. Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art/Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Photo: Christoph Schmidt/Museum for Western and Eastern Art, Odesa