Wien, Verzeichnis der Dürer-Zeichnungen aus der Sammlung Joseph von Grünling
The graphic art collection of the Viennese art dealer Joseph von Grünling (1785–c. 1845) was so highly regarded at the beginning of the 19th century that it was considered almost equal to aristocratic collections such as the Albertina in Vienna. If one is to believe collection reviews of the time, hardly any renowned master was missing from it. Not least in order to maintain the quality and expand the collection, Grünling systematically sold, exchanged and acquired sheets. In the early 1820s, he finally decided to shift the focus of his collection to prints and offered the drawings at auction in 1823 (link to the auction catalogue). In the course of this, they found their way into other renowned private collections and the holdings of art museums and cultural institutions. With the estate of the collector Joseph Heller (1798-1849), a handwritten catalogue of Grünling's Dürer drawings passed into the holdings of what was then the Royal Library (now the Bamberg State Library), which Grünling probably sold independently of the auction. Heller had requested the register for his Dürer monograph, published in 1827, as he intended to use it to list the holdings of princely and bourgeois private collections sorted by location.
The list contains drawings attributed to Dürer at the time, including tracings of the monograms, dates and inscriptions in Dürer's hand. Grünling then added his comments in red. The drawings are now in museums around the world, but a large collection was acquired by Hieronymus Klugkist (1778-1851), the founder of the Kunstverein in Bremen, and is now in the Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings) of the Kunsthalle Bremen.
