Maximilian Speck von Sternburg (1776 – 1856) was a wool merchant and art collector from Germany.

Life

Speck-Sternburg was born in Gröba and became wealthy in the wool trade. On his visits to various places he enjoyed viewing the art galleries and became a connaisseur. During his travels through Europe, Baron von Sternburg assembled an extensive art collection between 1807 and 1832. He acquired paintings by German, Dutch, Italian, French and Spanish masters from famous collections in Vienna, Rome or Brussels. From 1822 onwards he showed his collection on his estate Schloss Lützschena near Leipzig in a purpose-built gallery. Maximilian Speck was also one of the co-founders of the local art club ''Leipzig Kunstverein''. The Speck von Sternburg collection, which was significantly expanded by his son Alexander Maximilian, remained there over a century until 1945, when Leipzig became part of East Germany. It was seized along with the lands of Lützschena and was transferred to the Leipzig

Museum der bildenden Künste The Museum der bildenden Künste (German: "Museum of Fine Arts") is a museum in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany. It covers artworks from the Late Middle Ages to Modernity. History Museum Foundation and First Museum The museum dates back to the fo ...

by 1951. After six decades it was restituted to the Speck von Sternburg heir Wolf-Dietrich Freiherr Speck von Sternburg in 1994, who brought the various remnants of the collection together in the 'Maximilian Speck von Sternburg Stiftung', founded in 1996 for permanent loan to the MdbK. This foundation, with its 202 paintings, 127 drawings and over 400 graphic artworks, includes works by

Lucas Cranach the Elder Lucas Cranach the Elder (german: Lucas Cranach der Ältere ; – 16 October 1553) was a German Renaissance painter and printmaker in woodcut and engraving. He was court painter to the Electors of Saxony for most of his career, and is know ...

, Peter Paul Rubens,

Frans Hals Frans Hals the Elder (, , ; – 26 August 1666) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, chiefly of individual and group portraits and of genre works, who lived and worked in Haarlem. Hals played an important role in the evolution of 17th-century group ...

and

Caspar David Friedrich Caspar David Friedrich (5 September 1774 – 7 May 1840) was a 19th-century German Romantic landscape painter, generally considered the most important German artist of his generation. He is best known for his mid-period allegorical landscape ...

. It lends important pieces to the local museums. In addition to the art collection, half of the approximately 1,000 titles of the historical family library are also part of the foundation. Speck von Sternburg had originally set up a public art gallery in his home at Schloss Lützschena that became a popular visitor attraction in the 1840s. He also became a major patron of the museum in nearby Leipzig.Verzeichnis der Kunstwerke im Museum der bildenden Künste zu Leipzig
1903 catalog of

Museum der bildenden Künste zu Leipzig A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

Speck von Sternburg died in Leipzig.

References

Drawings from the Maximilian Speck von Sternburg Collection
on the website of the

Speck, Maximilian Freiherr von Sternburg
in the Deutsche-Biographie website 1776 births 1856 deaths People from Riesa German art collectors 19th-century art collectors {{Germany-bio-stub