Van Gogh to Picasso: The Thannhauser Legacy

After retiring from a distinguished career as a dealer of modern art in Europe and the United States, in 1963 Justin K. Thannhauser (1892–1976) announced a bequest of essential works from his private art collection—spanning some one hundred years—to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in New York. Hilde Thannhauser (1919–1991), Justin’s widow, subsequently made additional gifts to the institution in 1984 and 1991.

Today, the Guggenheim’s Thannhauser Collection provides an important survey of the avant-garde of late-nineteenth and early twentieth-century France, beginning with Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet, Vincent van Gogh, and others who sought to liberate art from academic genres and who embraced modern subject matters and techniques. Their groundbreaking experiments with materials and methods at the fin de siècle set the stage for the development of radical new styles in the next century, when artists such as Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso came to the fore. This presentation marks the first occasion that a significant portion of the renowned Thannhauser Collection is on display outside of New York since its installation at the Guggenheim Museum over fifty years ago—and underscores the Thannhauser family’s legacy as champions of the art of their time. As Justin observed of the collection, “I hope it will be appreciated. It’s my whole life.”