The Kupferstich-Kabinett (English: Collection of Prints, Drawings and Photographs) is part of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen (State Art Collections) of

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. Since 2004 it has been located in

Dresden Castle Dresden Castle or Royal Palace (german: Dresdner Residenzschloss or ) is one of the oldest buildings in Dresden, Germany. For almost 400 years, it was the residence of the electors (1547–1806) and kings (1806–1918) of Saxony from the Alberti ...

.Kupferstich-Kabinett
Information and history from the Dresden and Saxony tourist website.

History

Like many of Dresden's notable collections, this

print room A print room is a room in an art gallery or museum where a collection of old master and modern prints, usually together with drawings, watercolours, and photographs, are held and viewed. A further meaning is a room decorated by pasting prints ...

traces its origins to the Prince-electors of Saxony. The art chamber of the

House of Wettin The House of Wettin () is a dynasty of German kings, prince-electors, dukes, and counts that once ruled territories in the present-day German states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. The dynasty is one of the oldest in Europe, and its ori ...

, established around 1560, became an independent museum of prints and drawings in 1720.Zur Vorgeschichte des Dresdner Kupferstich-Kabinetts zwischen 1560 und 1738
Christian Melzer, ''Journal of the International Association of Research Institutes in the History of Art'', 0004. 21 June 2010. Retrieved 8 September 2010. The collection was expanded in the following centuries. It now describes itself as the oldest museum of graphic arts in the German-speaking world. Because most items had been evacuated to

Schloss Weesenstein Schloss Weesenstein is a '' Schloss'' located in , a small village, part of Müglitztal in the Müglitz river valley, around south of Dohna in Saxony, Germany. History A castle was erected here sometime around 1200, built with the purpose of def ...

in the early stages of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the collection was saved from the

bombing of Dresden The bombing of Dresden was a joint British and American aerial bombing attack on the city of Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony, during World War II. In four raids between 13 and 15 February 1945, 772 heavy bombers of the Roya ...

in February 1945. War-time losses were still high; around 50,000 items are still missing. Most of the exhibits were

looted Looting is the act of stealing, or the taking of goods by force, typically in the midst of a military, political, or other social crisis, such as war, natural disasters (where law and civil enforcement are temporarily ineffective), or rioting. ...

by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

after the war and did not return to Dresden until the late 1950s, and some when they were put back on display in the

Albertinum The Albertinum () is a modern art museum. The sandstone-clad Renaissance Revival building is located on Brühl's Terrace in the historic center of Dresden, Germany. It is named after King Albert of Saxony. The Albertinum hosts the New Masters ...

Collection

The collection includes over 500,000 items, only a fraction of which can be exhibited. The most renowned artists in the collection include

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 kno ...

, Albrecht Dürer, Jan van Eyck,

Francisco de Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 174616 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and e ...

, Hans Holbein the Younger, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, and Rubens. There is also a large number of works by artists with strong connections to Dresden, such as Caspar David Friedrich, Ludwig Richter, Georg Baselitz and Johannes Heisig. The collection of

Käthe Kollwitz Käthe Kollwitz ( born as Schmidt; 8 July 1867 – 22 April 1945) was a German artist who worked with painting, printmaking (including etching, lithography and woodcuts) and sculpture. Her most famous art cycles, including ''The Weavers'' and ' ...

was started in 1898 and now numbers over 200 works from her oeuvre of drawings and graphics. Besides the permanent exhibition, the Kupferstichkabinett also hosts regular special exhibitions featuring both its own works and those on loan from other notable museums.

Provenance research

The Kupferstich-Kabinett is one of several German museums that are researching the art collector Carl Heumann (1886-1945), who after building in the 1920s and 1930s an important collection of prints of German and Austrian art of the 18th and 19th centuries, was persecuted because of his Jewish origins under the National Socialist regime.The Kupferstich-Kabinett approached Carl Heumann's descendants in order to find a just and fair solution regarding the artworks from his collection.

Notes and references

External links

Kupferstichkabinett Homepage
of the Dresden State Art Collections
Kupferstich-Kabinett, Dresden
within Google Arts & Culture * {{authority control Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden Printmaking Art museums established in 1720 1720 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire

History

Collection

Provenance research

See also

Notes and references

External links