Histories Hidden in Paint from Manet to Picasso: Re-examining the Thannhauser Collection‎

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum has published a comprehensive study of its core holdings of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century art. Thannhauser Collection: French Modernism at the Guggenheim brings to light revelatory new scholarship on the history of the German-Jewish Thannhauser family and galleries and, more broadly, the cultural milieu of Europe in the first decades of the twentieth century. Featuring seventy works by Georges Braque, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet, Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, and others, French Modernism at the Guggenheim also offers rare insight into artist materials and processes through detailed technical analyses of the paintings, drawings, and sculptures that comprise the collection. A team of Guggenheim conservators and curators led the research team with support from a wide-ranging community of specialists across myriad fields of expertise.

On the subject of the Guggenheim’s Thannhauser Collection and its recent publication, La Maison Française NYU will host a conversation between Julie Barten, Senior Painting Conservator and Associate Director of Conservation Affairs; Megan Fontanella, Curator, Modern Art and Provenance; and Vivien Greene, Senior Curator, 19th- and Early 20th-Century Art. In addition to illuminating key conservation treatment projects (and several surprising discoveries), the program will explore the genesis of Justin Thannhauser’s French art collection and its eventual transfer to the Guggenheim in the 1960s. The collector-dealer’s lifelong endorsement of avant-garde art and eye for original talent are manifest in his rich story, which parallels the vision of museum founder Solomon R. Guggenheim to promote the art of his time.

In English

Co-organized by La Maison Française and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

^{Top image: Thannhauser Collection: French Modernism at the Guggenheim, Guggenheim Publications, 2018 © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York}

^{Justin K. Thannhauser before Pablo Picasso’s Fernande with a Black Mantilla (Fernande à la mantille noire, ca. 1905), in his New York residence, ca. 1957. Courtesy Zentralarchiv für deutsche und internationale Kunstmarktforschung e. V. ZADIK, Cologne}
 

^{Vincent van Gogh, Mountains at Saint-Rémy (Montagnes à Saint-Rémy), 1889. Oil on canvas, 28 11/16 x 36 1/4 inches (72.8 x 92 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Thannhauser Collection, Gift, Justin K. Thannhauser 78.2514.24 © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York}
 

^{Édouard Manet, Before the Mirror (Devant la glace), 1876. Oil on canvas, 36 5/8 x 28 3/16 inches (93 x 71.6 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Thannhauser Collection, Gift, Justin K. Thannhauser 78.2514.27 © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York}
 

^{Édouard Vuillard, Place Vintimille, 1909–10. Distemper on brown Kraft paper, mounted on canvas, two panels: 200 x 69.5 cm and 200 x 69.85 cm. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Thannhauser Collection, Gift, Justin K. Thannhauser 78.2514.74. Right panel, photomacrograph in raking illumination, showing layers of porous, granular paint applied wet-over-dry (area is approximately 19 × 28 mm) © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York}