The Österreichische Galerie Belvedere is a

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

housed in the Belvedere palace, in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. The Belvedere palaces were the summer residence of

Prince Eugene of Savoy Prince Eugene Francis of Savoy-Carignano (18 October 1663 – 21 April 1736), better known as Prince Eugene, was a distinguished Generalfeldmarschall, field marshal in the Army of the Holy Roman Empire and of the Austrian Habsburg dynasty durin ...

(1663–1736). The ensemble was built in the early eighteenth century by the famous

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

architect Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt, and comprises the Upper and Lower Belvedere, with the

Orangery An orangery or orangerie is a room or dedicated building, historically where orange and other fruit trees are protected during the winter, as a large form of greenhouse or conservatory. In the modern day an orangery could refer to either ...

and Palace Stables, as well as extensive gardens. The Belvedere houses what was the first public museum in Austria, today containing one of the greatest collections of Austrian art dating from the Middle Ages to the present day, complemented by the works of international artists. At the Upper Belvedere, visitors not only encounter artworks drawn from over five hundred years of art history but can also experience the magnificent staterooms. In addition to the Lower and Upper Belvedere, the museum has further sites at Prince Eugene's town palace and the 21er Haus as well as the Gustinus Ambrosi Museum. The Belvedere's art collection presents an almost complete overview of the development of art in Austria and, thus, an insight into the country's history. The world's largest collection of

Gustav Klimt Gustav Klimt (14 July 1862 – 6 February 1918) was an Austrian symbolist painter and a founding member of the Vienna Secession movement. His work helped define the Art Nouveau style in Europe. Klimt is known for his paintings, murals, sket ...

's paintings lies at the heart of the presentation of ''Art around 1900'', on show at the Upper Belvedere. Its highlights are Klimt's paintings, '' The Kiss'' (1908) and '' Judith I'' (1901), and masterpieces by

Egon Schiele Egon Leo Adolf Ludwig Schiele (; 12 June 1890 – 31 October 1918) was an Austrian Expressionist painters, painter. His work is noted for its intensity and its raw sexuality, and for the many self-portraits the artist produced, including nude sel ...

and

Oskar Kokoschka Oskar Kokoschka (1 March 1886 – 22 February 1980) was an Austrian artist, poet, playwright and teacher, best known for his intense expressionistic portraits and landscapes, as well as his theories on vision that influenced the Viennese Expre ...

. Key works of French Impressionism and the greatest collection of Viennese Biedermeier art are further attractions at the museum.

History

The Belvedere garden palace was commissioned by

and completed in 1723. The architect Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt designed the Belvedere for summer residence. For the interior Prince Eugene commissioned

Francesco Solimena Francesco Solimena (4 October 1657 – 3 April 1747) was a prolific Italian Baroque painter, one of an established family of painters and draughtsmen. Biography Francesco Solimena was born in Canale di Serino in the province of Avellino. H ...

Carlo Carlone Carlo Innocenzo Carlone or Carloni (1686–1775) was an Italian painter and engraver, active especially in Germany. Biography He was a native of Alta Valle Intelvi, Scaria, near Como, in Lombardy, but may have been from the Carloni family of Ge ...

, and

Giacomo del Pò Giacomo del Pò (1654 – 15 November 1726), also spelled ''del Po'', was an Italian painter of the Baroque. He was born in Palermo (other sources say Rome or Naples), the son of Pietro del Pò who was also his teacher. He was admitted to the ...

. In 1776 Empress Maria Theresa transferred the Imperial Picture Gallery from the Imperial Hofburg Palace to Belvedere and granted the general public access. Various parts of the imperial art collection were subsequently placed on display at the Belvedere from 1781 onwards. In 1903, the state's "Moderne Galerie" was opened at the Lower Belvedere. After the fall of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, the Upper Belvedere and the Orangery were converted into museums as well. The Österreichische Galerie (Austrian Gallery), as the museum was named in 1921, came to comprise the Baroque Museum in the Lower Belvedere which opened in 1923), the Gallery of 19th Century Art at the Upper Belvedere opened in 1924 and the Modern Gallery at the Orangery opened in 1929. The Belvedere's collection of medieval art was first exhibited at the Orangery next to the Lower Belvedere in 1953. In March of 1950, a major fire broke out in the “Gold Cabinet” in the north-eastern corner pavilion of the Upper Belvedere, which had already been damaged by bombing during World War II Some of the rooms and artworks destroyed in that fire were depicted by artists who had painted and/or photographed the interior and its decor earlier in the 20th century, such as the painter

Josef Pögl Josef may refer to *Josef (given name) *Josef (surname) * ''Josef'' (film), a 2011 Croatian war film *Musik Josef Musik Josef is a Japanese manufacturer of musical instruments. It was founded by Yukio Nakamura and is the only company in Japan spec ...

(1867-1956) whose work is currently displayed as part of the Imperial Treasury Collection. In 1955, after years of rebuilding and renovation, the Upper Belvedere was reopened to the public, showing works by Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka, and other major Austrian artists. In the years after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, there were many acquisitions and the museum was expanded and modernized. The Österreichische Galerie Belvedere is today one of the Austrian Federal Museums (Bundesmuseen) and since 2000 has been a legally independent public research/scientific institution (''vollrechtsfähige "wissenschaftliche Anstalt'').

Agnes Husslein Agnes Husslein, also Agnes Husslein-Arco, (born 22 May 1954) is an Austrian art historian and art manager. Life Husslein was born the daughter of Felicitas (''née'' Boeckl) and Carl Heinrich Arco in Vienna (1920–1978).Rupertinum and the Museum der Moderne on the Mönchsberg, was director of the Belvedere between 2007 and 2016. She helped to position the Belvedere as a museum of Austrian art in an international context. Stella Rollig who served as Austrian Federal Curator for the Fine Arts from 1994 to 1996, is currently the general director of the Belvedere since 2017. She and Christian Humer edited a book translated into English from the original German, celebrating 300 years of the museum and its collection in 2023. Following extensive adaptation and remodelling, the highlights of the collections of medieval and Baroque art (previously in the Lower Belvedere) have been placed on display at the Upper Belvedere since spring 2008. For the first time, the entire scope of the permanent collection, from the Middle Ages to the mid-twentieth century, is possible to see under one roof. The adapted rooms in the Lower Belvedere and Orangery now provide space for temporary exhibitions.

Gallery

Nazi-looted art controversies and restitutions

* On August 26, 1959,

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

survivor Alice Morgenstern, the widow of Josef Morgenstern who was murdered in

Auschwitz Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...

, filed a claim to the Finanzlandesdirektion für Wien, Niederösterreich und das Burgenland (Provincial Tax Office for Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland) in which she stated, "the picture ''Four Trees'' by

, which used to be owned by us, is now hanging in the Upper Belvedere. We never sold the picture but gave it to a friend, Robert Röhrl, lawyer in Vienna, Gumpendorferstrasse, for safekeeping. He unfortunately died, and I do not know how the picture landed in the nineteenth-century ecte twentieth-centurycollection in the Belvedere." On March 20, 2020, the Austrian Advisory Commission recommended that the Schiele be restituted to Morgenstern's heirs. * In November 2006, after more than five decades of legal disputes, a panel ruled that Edvard Munch's "Summer Night at the Beach", on display at the Belvedere Gallery, was to be returned to Marina Fistoulari-Mahler, granddaughter and sole heir of Alma Mahler, wife of Austrian composer Gustav Mahler. * In 2006 Austria returned five paintings by Gustav Klimt from the Belvedere, to the heirs of Adele Bloch-Bauer. *In 2006 the Austrian arbitration panel decided that the portrait of "Amalie Zuckerkandl" by Gustav Klimt was not looted by the Nazis and did not need to be restituted. The decision caused much commentary, in part because Amalie Zuckerkandl perished with her daughter in Auschwitz and in part because, as

MSNBC MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...

reported "Rather than return this obviously looted painting, an Austrian arbitration panel concluded that it should stay in the Belvedere." *In 2009, the Austrian arbitration panel recommended that the Belvedere restitute Johann Peter Krafft, Male Portrait (also: Portrait of his Brother or Portrait) to the legal successors of Max Mandl-Maldenau. *In 2012 a documentary ''Portrait of Wally'' told how Egon Schiele's famous portrait, which had belonged to a Viennese art dealer named Lea Bondi until the Nazi Friedrich Welz confiscated it from her private collection in 1939, was restituted by mistake to the Belvedere Museum after World War II as part of another dealer's collection. *In 2014 the Belvedere was ordered to restitute "Farmer's Kitchen / Kitchen Interior" by Wilhelm Leibl to the heirs of Martha Liebermann – Max Liebermann's widow due to Nazi persecution.

References

External links

*
Virtual tour of the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere
provided by

Google Arts & Culture Google Arts & Culture (formerly Google Art Project) is an online platform of high-resolution images and videos of artworks and cultural artifacts from partner cultural organizations throughout the world, operated by Google. It utilizes high-re ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Osterreichische Galerie Belvedere Art museums and galleries in Vienna Buildings and structures in Landstraße Art Nouveau collections Culture in Vienna Art museums and galleries established in 1903 1903 establishments in Austria 20th-century architecture in Austria