3. GAUGUIN, Paul
Mata Mua (In Olden Times)
1892
Oil on canvas. 91 x 69 cm
Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection on deposit at
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza
4. GAUGUIN, Paul
Mata Mua (In Olden Times) (detail)
1892
Oil on canvas. 91 x 69 cm
Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection on deposit at
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza
5. GAUGUIN, Paul
Mata Mua (In Olden Times) (detail)
1892
Oil on canvas. 91 x 69 cm
Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection on deposit at
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza
6. GAUGUIN, Paul
Mata Mua (In Olden Times) (detail)
1892
Oil on canvas. 91 x 69 cm
Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection on deposit at
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza
7. GAUGUIN, Paul
Mata Mua (In Olden Times) (detail)
1892
Oil on canvas. 91 x 69 cm
Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection on deposit at
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza
8.
9. BACON, Francis
Portrait of George Dyer in a Mirror
1968
Oil on canvas. 198 x 147 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
10. BACON, Francis
Portrait of George Dyer in a Mirror (detail)
1968
Oil on canvas. 198 x 147 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
11. BACON, Francis
Portrait of George Dyer in a Mirror (detail)
1968
Oil on canvas. 198 x 147 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
12. BACON, Francis
Portrait of George Dyer in a Mirror (detail)
1968
Oil on canvas. 198 x 147 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
13. BACON, Francis
Portrait of George Dyer in a Mirror (detail)
1968
Oil on canvas. 198 x 147 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
14.
15. CHAGALL, Marc
The House in Grey
1917
Oil on canvas. 68 x 74 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
16. CHAGALL, Marc
The House in Grey (detail)
1917
Oil on canvas. 68 x 74 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
17. CHAGALL, Marc
The House in Grey (detail)
1917
Oil on canvas. 68 x 74 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
18. CHAGALL, Marc
The House in Grey (detail)
1917
Oil on canvas. 68 x 74 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
19. CHAGALL, Marc
The House in Grey (detail)
1917
Oil on canvas. 68 x 74 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
20. CHAGALL, Marc
The House in Grey (detail)
1917
Oil on canvas. 68 x 74 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
21.
22. DALÍ, Salvador
Dream caused by the Flight of a Bee
around a Pomegranate a Second
before Wakening up
1944
Oil on panel. 51 x 41 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
23. DALÍ, Salvador
Dream caused by the Flight of a Bee
around a Pomegranate a Second
before Wakening up (detail)
1944
Oil on panel. 51 x 41 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
24. DALÍ, Salvador
Dream caused by the Flight of a Bee
around a Pomegranate a Second
before Wakening up (detail)
1944
Oil on panel. 51 x 41 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
25. DALÍ, Salvador
Dream caused by the Flight of a Bee
around a Pomegranate a Second
before Wakening up (detail)
1944
Oil on panel. 51 x 41 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
26.
27. GOGH, Vincent van
Les Vessenots in Auvers
May 1890, Auvers-sur-Oise
Oil on canvas, 55 x 65 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
28. GOGH, Vincent van
Les Vessenots in Auvers (detail)
May 1890, Auvers-sur-Oise
Oil on canvas, 55 x 65 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
29. GOGH, Vincent van
Les Vessenots in Auvers (detail)
May 1890, Auvers-sur-Oise
Oil on canvas, 55 x 65 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
30. GOGH, Vincent van
Les Vessenots in Auvers (detail)
May 1890, Auvers-sur-Oise
Oil on canvas, 55 x 65 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
31. GOGH, Vincent van
Les Vessenots in Auvers (detail)
May 1890, Auvers-sur-Oise
Oil on canvas, 55 x 65 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
32.
33. DEGAS, Edgar
The Green Dancers
1877-79
Pastel and gouache, 66 x 36 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
34. DEGAS, Edgar
The Green Dancers (detail)
1877-79
Pastel and gouache, 66 x 36 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
35. DEGAS, Edgar
The Green Dancers (detail)
1877-79
Pastel and gouache, 66 x 36 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
36. DEGAS, Edgar
The Green Dancers (detail)
1877-79
Pastel and gouache, 66 x 36 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
37. DEGAS, Edgar
The Green Dancers (detail)
1877-79
Pastel and gouache, 66 x 36 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
38.
39. KIRCHNER, Ernst Ludwig
Fränzi in front of a Carved Chair
1910
Oil on canvas. 71 x 49.5 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
40. KIRCHNER, Ernst Ludwig
Fränzi in front of a Carved Chair
(detail)
1910
Oil on canvas. 71 x 49.5 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
41. KIRCHNER, Ernst Ludwig
Fränzi in front of a Carved Chair
(detail)
1910
Oil on canvas. 71 x 49.5 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
43. KIRCHNER, Ernst Ludwig
Fränzi in front of a Carved Chair
This portrait of a girl from the working-class district of Friedrichstadt in Dresden is one of the finest examples of the Expressionist style of the German group Die Brücke, characterised
by the simplification of form and the arbitrary use of colour. Here, Fränzi, who modelled for a number of portraits by Kirchner and other members of the group, sits on a chair whose
back has been carved into the shape of a naked woman. The girl stares defiantly at the viewer as the intense green of her face, defined by thick, unnaturalistic brushstrokes, contrasts
sharply with the pink flesh tones of the female figure that frames her. The frontal placing of the sitter suggests the influence of Munch, Van Gogh and Gauguin, and also recalls Primitive
art.
44. GAUGUIN, Paul
Mata Mua (In Olden Times)
In an idyllic landscape enclosed by mountains, a group of women worship Hina, goddess of the moon. In the foreground, a girl plays the flute. To the left, separated by the trunk of a tall tree that
splits the composition in two like a hinge, another group dances round the idol. Gauguin left for Tahiti in 1891, hoping to find artistic inspiration among primitive peoples whose development
had been untouched by Western civilisation. However, all he encountered were the vestiges of a glorious past, already doomed to extinction. Mata Mua (In Olden Times) is a hymn to the natural
lifestyle Gauguin so fervently sought. Painted in bright, flat colours, and rejecting any claim to naturalism, it is also an elegy for a lost Golden Age.
45. BACON, Francis
Portrait of George Dyer in a Mirror
In this double portrait, George Dyer—for many years Bacon’s lover—sits in a revolving chair facing a mirror placed on a strange piece of furniture with a stand. The violent brutality of the
image, with its distorted body and spasm-twisted face, is heightened by a ring of light from a source outside the painting. However, the face reflected in the mirror, though split in two by a
strip of light space, is not racked by the same distortions. If the two halves of the reflection were joined together, they would provide a fairly lifelike portrait of Dyer, with his angular profile
and hooked nose, and an expression combining a death wish and desire. Building on Picasso’s dislocated portraits of the mid-twentieth century, Bacon succeeds in capturing the most
sordid side of human nature.
46. DALÍ, Salvador
Dream caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate a Second before Wakening up
The sleeping figure of Gala, Dalí’s wife and muse, floats above a rock in a tranquil marine landscape. Beside her naked body, two drops of water, a pomegranate and a bee are also
airborne. Gala’s dream, prompted by the buzzing of the bee, appears in the upper part of the canvas; there, from an exploding pomegranate shoots out a fish, from whose mouth two
ferocious tigers emerge together with a bayonet which, one second later, will wake Gala from her restful sleep. Although by 1944 Dalí was already living in America and devoting little
time to painting, this canvas marks a return to his ‘paranoiac-critical method.’ His view—based on Freudian theories—that images were open to multiple interpretations made him one of
the leading members of the Surrealist group.
47. GOGH, Vincent van
Les Vessenots in Auvers
This landscape of ‘Les Vessenots,’ on the outskirts of Auvers, shows a group of old country cottages placed just below a raised horizon; further down, wheat fields stretch to the
bottom of the canvas, broken only by a few swaying trees. The narrow colour range—mainly bright greens and yellows—and the nervous, agitated brushstrokes following a
repetitive, undulating rhythm, are characteristic of the artist’s work in his final period.
Van Gogh painted a large number of landscapes in the weeks before his death, always working outdoors. By that time, he was prey to all manner of conflicting moods: the vast
expanses of fertile cropland gave him a sense of freedom, but at the same time intensified the feeling of melancholy and loneliness which would eventually lead to his suicide.
48. DEGAS, Edgar
The Green Dancers
Degas was fascinated by the world of ballet; hence, it figured prominently in many of his paintings. Here, the group of dancers is depicted in mid-performance, as viewed from an upper side
box. Only one of the girls in green is shown full-length, captured as she executes a swift, complicated turn. The other figures are cropped, leaving the viewer to imagine the rest. In the
background, a number of ballerinas dressed in orange stand against the landscape scenery, awaiting their turn. Degas’ use of a cropped, off-centred pictorial space was influenced by
photography and by Japanese prints. He felt that the unfinished, transitory nature of reality could only be conveyed using a fragmented technique. Here, the fleeting nature of the
movements is captured with rapid pastel strokes, applied with immense skill.
49. CHAGALL, Marc
The House in Grey
The Grey House is one of a series of canvases painted by Chagall in his native city, Vitebsk, during the First World War. In this view of the old town—whose recognisable landmarks
include the steeple of the Cathedral of the Assumption—the central feature is the wooden house in the foreground, typical of those found along the banks of the River Dvina. Here, Chagall
blends the Cubist techniques learnt during his Paris years—varying planes and shifting perspectives—with fantastical elements such as the sinuous clouds and the small figure on the left,
which might be a self-portrait. These elements, together with the predominance of grey, convey Chagall’s perception of his native city as ‘sad and gay’.
50. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum or simply the Thyssen, is an art museum in Madrid, Spain,
located near the Prado Museum at one of city's main boulevards. It is known as part of the
"Golden Triangle of Art", which also includes the Prado and the Reina Sofia national galleries.
The Thyssen-Bornemisza fills the historical gaps in its counterparts' collections: in the Prado's
case this includes Italian primitives and works from the English, Dutch and German schools,
while in the case of the Reina Sofia it concerns Impressionists, Expressionists, and European
and American paintings from the 20th century.
With over 1,600 paintings, it was once the second largest private collection in the world after the
British Royal Collection. A competition was held to house the core of the collection in 1987-88
after Baron Thyssen, having tried to enlarge his Museum in Villa Favorit', searched for a location
in Europe.