DOI Heft:
No. 158 (May, 1906)
DOI Artikel:Hulton, Costanza: Herr Thomas Knorr's collection of modern pictures in Munich
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20714#0314
The Knorr Collection of Modern Pictures
The interior of Herr Knorr's house may be said Dancer into rococo surroundings, where she seems
to represent two distinct phases of modern domestic singularly out of place. Nowadays, when taste is so
decoration—the imitative and the original, both eclectic, and that which is beautiful or interesting
equally designed and carried out by Prof. Seidl. in itself is brought from all parts of the world, when
The large salon, divided into three unequal por- gilded Buddhas are to be seen jostling Sevres vases
tions, and the small music-room are more or less and mediaeval German ironwork supporting Chinese
in the spirit of French rococo work. The dining- embroideries, it is almost impossible, except
room, containing much beautiful woodwork, tapes- perhaps in a large mansion or public museum, for
try, and a magnificent majolica stove bearing the styles to be kept apart. This very mixture is repre-
date 1664 and the signature of "Abraham Pfauw, sentalive of our own times ; but innate good taste
Haffner zu Winterthur," is in German renaissance must preside over the whole, if such a dwelling-
style, while the ample spiral staircase—a very sue- house is to be saved from looking like a bazaar,
cessful and original conception of Prof. Seidl's— The pictures of the Knorr collection number
and two large rooms, on the ground floor and first more than two hundred, and it is of course impos-
floor respectively, are quite modern, belonging to sible, within the limits of a short article such as
our own day and being in no way copied from the this, to give an adequte description of more than a
work of any earlier period. Many of the details in few of them. I will notice first those which are
these rooms are interesting and charming; the reproduced here. Franz von Lenbach's Portrait
decorative panels in oils in the music-room by of Prince Bismarck is one of the very finest of his
Rudolf von Seitz are harmonious in colour and many portraits of the great Chancellor, for whom
finely designed in a some-
what Tiepolesque manner,
one of them representing
the triumph of Wagner
over the older schools of
music.
The two large modern
rooms in Herr Knorr's
house have been specially
built to contain the numer-
ous collection of pictures
brought together during the
last twenty-five years. As
this collection proves, Herr
Knorr's artistic tastes are
varied and cosmopolitan,
and he has shown an
independence of judgment
and appreciation of intrinsic
merit not always to be
found among collectors.
Undoubtedly the pictures
look their best in the new
rooms, where the decora-
tion is subdued and in
harmony with them. With
the exception of Lenbach,
there is hardly an artist
represented among them
whose work could look
well in a Louis XV. salon.
Exigencies of space have,
however, driven Hierl
Deronco's life-sized Spanish portrait of frau eugenie knorr by franz von i.enbach
294
The interior of Herr Knorr's house may be said Dancer into rococo surroundings, where she seems
to represent two distinct phases of modern domestic singularly out of place. Nowadays, when taste is so
decoration—the imitative and the original, both eclectic, and that which is beautiful or interesting
equally designed and carried out by Prof. Seidl. in itself is brought from all parts of the world, when
The large salon, divided into three unequal por- gilded Buddhas are to be seen jostling Sevres vases
tions, and the small music-room are more or less and mediaeval German ironwork supporting Chinese
in the spirit of French rococo work. The dining- embroideries, it is almost impossible, except
room, containing much beautiful woodwork, tapes- perhaps in a large mansion or public museum, for
try, and a magnificent majolica stove bearing the styles to be kept apart. This very mixture is repre-
date 1664 and the signature of "Abraham Pfauw, sentalive of our own times ; but innate good taste
Haffner zu Winterthur," is in German renaissance must preside over the whole, if such a dwelling-
style, while the ample spiral staircase—a very sue- house is to be saved from looking like a bazaar,
cessful and original conception of Prof. Seidl's— The pictures of the Knorr collection number
and two large rooms, on the ground floor and first more than two hundred, and it is of course impos-
floor respectively, are quite modern, belonging to sible, within the limits of a short article such as
our own day and being in no way copied from the this, to give an adequte description of more than a
work of any earlier period. Many of the details in few of them. I will notice first those which are
these rooms are interesting and charming; the reproduced here. Franz von Lenbach's Portrait
decorative panels in oils in the music-room by of Prince Bismarck is one of the very finest of his
Rudolf von Seitz are harmonious in colour and many portraits of the great Chancellor, for whom
finely designed in a some-
what Tiepolesque manner,
one of them representing
the triumph of Wagner
over the older schools of
music.
The two large modern
rooms in Herr Knorr's
house have been specially
built to contain the numer-
ous collection of pictures
brought together during the
last twenty-five years. As
this collection proves, Herr
Knorr's artistic tastes are
varied and cosmopolitan,
and he has shown an
independence of judgment
and appreciation of intrinsic
merit not always to be
found among collectors.
Undoubtedly the pictures
look their best in the new
rooms, where the decora-
tion is subdued and in
harmony with them. With
the exception of Lenbach,
there is hardly an artist
represented among them
whose work could look
well in a Louis XV. salon.
Exigencies of space have,
however, driven Hierl
Deronco's life-sized Spanish portrait of frau eugenie knorr by franz von i.enbach
294