Sulpiz Boiserée (2 August 1783 - 2 May 1854) was a German art collector and art historian. With his brother Melchior he formed a collection that ultimately formed the basis of that of the
Alte Pinakothek
The Alte Pinakothek (, ''Old Pinakothek'') is an art museum located in the Kunstareal area in Munich, Germany. It is one of the oldest galleries in the world and houses a significant collection of Old Master paintings. The name Alte (Old) Pi ...
. He played a key role in the completion of
Cologne Cathedral
Cologne Cathedral (german: Kölner Dom, officially ', English: Cathedral Church of Saint Peter) is a Catholic cathedral in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne and of the administration of the Archdiocese of ...
.
Life
Boisserée was born in Cologne on 2 August 1783,
[ into a wealthy family having their origins in Huy, Belgium from where they migrated to Cologne in the 18th century. After his mother and father died in 1790 and 1792, Boisserée was raised by his grandmother during the Napoleonic occupation of Cologne. He was expected to continue the family business while his younger brother, ]Melchior
Melchior is the name traditionally given to one of the biblical Magi appearing in the Gospel of Matthew. There are many notable people with this name, or close variations.
As a first name
* Melchior Anderegg (1828–1914), Swiss mountain guide
* ...
, was expected to become a scientist. In 1799, at the age of 16, Boisserée attended school in Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
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, where he discovered his interest in art. After he returned to Cologne, Boisserée, his friend Johann Baptist Bertram and his brother Melchior began to systematically collect and save medieval paintings from the secularization processes at that time, initially with a focus on paintings of German and Dutch origins.[ In 1803, the brothers went to Paris, where they studied the works on show at the Musée Napoleon at the ]Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
, which had been greatly enriched through Napoleon’s looting of art from abroad.[ In Paris they became disciples of the romantic theorist ]Friedrich Schlegel
Karl Wilhelm Friedrich (after 1814: von) Schlegel (; ; 10 March 1772 – 12 January 1829) was a German poet, literary critic, philosopher, philologist, and Indologist. With his older brother, August Wilhelm Schlegel, he was one of the main figure ...
[ with whom they visited Belgium and Switzerland in 1804-5.][
]
Collecting
In 1804, alarmed by the nationalisation of church property and its destruction through sales, the Boisserée brothers began to collect medieval art, motivated as much by the desire to save it as to possess it. Melchior concentrated on acquisition and Sulpiz on research.[
Boisserée developed a new theory of the history of German painting, rejecting the idea that it had evolved gradually from crude beginnings; he proposed instead that a refined medieval style, ultimately derived from Byzantine prototypes had flourished, until the art was revolutionised by Jan van Eyck.]
In 1810 the brothers put their collection on public display in a palace in Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...
, attracting enthusiastic attention from Romantic circles. Schlegel was especially enthusiastic. Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treat ...
, who also visited the collection was, with his classical sympathies, more reserved, although he was still prepared to write a preface for Boisserée's essay ''Altdeutsche Baukunst'' (1817). The brothers closed their museum in 1819. Boisserée wrote a catalogue of the collection, commissioning Johann Nepomuk Strixner to document the works in a series of lithographs, which were published between 1821 and 1840. In 1827 Georg von Dillis, the director of the royal collection of Ludwig I of Bavaria
en, Louis Charles Augustus
, image = Joseph Karl Stieler - King Ludwig I in his Coronation Robes - WGA21796.jpg
, caption = Portrait by Joseph Stieler, 1825
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, bought the complete collection. Bertram and the Boisserée brothers followed it to Munich, and in 1835 Boisserée was appointed general curator of sculptural monuments in Bavaria, and the museum was finally opened as the Alte Pinakothek.[
The Boisserée collection, still in the Alte Pinakothek, includes the "Columba altarpiece" (1455) by ]Rogier van der Weyden
Rogier van der Weyden () or Roger de la Pasture (1399 or 140018 June 1464) was an early Netherlandish painter whose surviving works consist mainly of religious triptychs, altarpieces, and commissioned single and diptych portraits. He was highly ...
[ (which Boisserée believed to be by van Eyck),][ ''Cardinal Charles of Bourbon, Archbishop of Lyon'' by the Master of Moulins, the ''Seven Joys of the Virgin'' (1480) by ]Hans Memling
Hans Memling (also spelled Memlinc; c. 1430 – 11 August 1494) was a painter active in Flanders, who worked in the tradition of Early Netherlandish painting. He was born in the Middle Rhine region and probably spent his childhood in Mainz. He ...
, and the "Pearl of Brabant" (1465) by Dieric Bouts the elder.[
]
Cologne Cathedral
Boisserée spent much of his time campaigning for the restoration and completion of Cologne Cathedral, where construction had come to a halt during the Reformation.[ Soon after settling in Heidelberg in 1810][ he commissioned a survey of the building, and a set of drawings which were eventually published as engravings. Following the end of the Napoleonic wars, he managed to acquire, separately, the two halves of an enormous late 13th-century drawing, showing the original design for the west end, including the unbuilt north-west tower and west gable, and whole of the south-west tower, which had been only partially constructed .][ This drawing is now known as "Plan F".] He was able to interest Crown Prince Frederick William of Prussia (later King Frederick William IV) in the project, and in 1817 the prince commissioned a report from the architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel
Karl Friedrich Schinkel (13 March 1781 – 9 October 1841) was a Prussian architect, city planner and painter who also designed furniture and stage sets. Schinkel was one of the most prominent architects of Germany and designed both neoclassic ...
.[ Work on the cathedral was eventually resumed in 1842,][ and the building was completed towards the end of the 19th century.]
Last years
The brothers eventually returned to the Rhineland from Munich, settling in Bonn in 1845. Boisserée died there on 2 May 1854, Melchior having predeceased him three years earlier.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boisseree, Sulpiz
1783 births
1854 deaths
People from Cologne
German art collectors
18th-century art collectors
19th-century art collectors