Thyssen Bornemisza Museum Madrid

The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum opened its doors to the public on October 10th, 1992 and was acquired by the Spanish state for $350 million in 1993. It is one of the three museums, the Prado and Reina Sofia being the other 2, that form the “Golden Art Triangle” of Madrid. At around the time of its opening the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection was considered one of the finest private art collections in the world. Even today few other world cities could boast a better collection than this.

Duccio, Van Eyck, Carpaccio, Kandinsky, Lucas Cranach, Dürer, Caravaggio, Rubens, Frans Hals, Titian, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Monet, Kirchner, Picasso, Mondrian, Klee, Hopper, Rauschenberg, to name but a few are amongst the great artists you will find at the museum. The museum is structured in such a way that you can actually take a journey through art, from its 13th Century till the last decades of the 20th Century.

As the Thyssen press release says: “You can follow the progress of art from Italian Primitives, with Duccio as the main example, until the latest Surrealism and the development of the Pop sensibility in the Sixties, together with the most important painters of the Figurative current of our times.” The museum has an unique collection of American Nineteenth Century Painting, practically unknown in Europe and shown in two rooms of the Museum.

Shortly the museum will be opening a new extension, which will add an extra 50% of museum space to the Thyssen- Bornemisza. Highlights from the Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza collection include: The Garden of Eden, by Jan Brueghel the Elder; The Porta Portello, by Canaletto; Portrait of a young Woman, by Fragonard; The Lock, by Constable; Christ and the Magdalen, by Rodin; Cabbage Field, Pontoise, by Pissarro; Corn Field, by Renoir; Race Horses in a Landscape, by Degas, Charing Cross Bridge, by Monet, Allées et venues, Martinique, and Mata Mua (Once upon a time), by Gauguin; The Ludwigskirche in Munich by Kandinsky; House in Dangast (The White House), by Heckel; The Harvesters, by Picasso; and Seated Woman, by Juan Gris.

The museum itself was first constructed in 1760 and over the years architects included Silvestre Pérez and Antonio López in 1783 and 1805 respectively. However, much of what we currently see was remdolled by Rafael Moneo.

More information: Thyssen Museum website
Entrance: from 3.00 - 4.8 Euros
Address: Paseo Prado, 8
Metro: Banco de España
Telephone: 91 369 01 51
Opening Times: Tuesday to Sunday 10 a.m - 7p.m.