SKD: History

Der berühmte Canaletto-Blick als Kupferstich. Dresden mit prominenter Hofkirche und Frauenkirche ist vom rechten Elbufer unterhalb der Augustusbrücke zu sehen.

History

“State of the Art since 1560”: This was the motto of the celebrations surrounding the 450th anniversary of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD) in 2010.

The museum complex comprises a total of fifteen museums, which are among the most significant and oldest in Europe, and were the first to open their collections to the public. The origins of the SKD can be seen mainly in the sixteenth-century Kunstkammer of the Saxon electors. Set up initially as a universal collection, the emphasis was on technical devices, tools, instruments, clocks and automata. Here the desire for costly and unusual things met an enthusiasm for technological innovation.

Passion for art

It was above all August the Strong (1670–1733), Elector of Saxony and later King of Poland who furthered the systematic development of the holdings. Having travelled to Versailles, he had become acquainted with the splendour of the Sun King, the absolute monarch, and had something similar in mind for his residence. He established the Grünes Gewölbe (Green Vault), the Skulpturensammlung (Sculpture Collection) and the Kupferstich-Kabinett (Cabinet of Prints and Drawings), and passionately collected porcelain and precious objects. In this way he laid the foundation stone for a museum structure which can still be recognized today. His son August III greatly expanded the Gemäldegalerie (Picture Gallery) and, by the mid-eighteenth century, had turned it into one of the most significant paintings galleries in Europe.

Umkränzt von den Herrschinsignien lässt sich August der Starke in vollem Machtbewusstsein inszenieren — **Louis de Silvestre, König August II. von Polen, um 1723**

ongoing process

Saxony and its art collections survived the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763), but with great losses. Paintings had to be sold and silverwork melted down. In 1831, the daily operations of the museums came to be financed by the public purse and two years later the Königliches Historisches Museum (Royal Historical Museum), which had developed from the armoury, was added to the collections shown at the Zwinger. By 1855, the gallery building designed by Gottfried Semper completed and closed off the Zwinger grounds toward the Elbe River, and even in those early days the Sistine Madonna by Raphael was presented prominently in a room of its own. In 1891, under the direction of archaeologist Georg Treu, the Albertinum was opened, showing ancient sculptures and plaster casts.

aus der Vogelperspektive ist das Dresdner Residenzschloss in schwarz-weiß zu sehen, oberhalb in alter Schrift die Nennung "Kurfürstliche Residenz" — **Schneider, Georg Jakob: "Das kurfürstliche Residenzschloss zu Dresden"**

Der letzte Sachsenkönig steht in blauer Uniform in einem hochherrschaftlichem Zimmer — With war, capitulation, revolution and the abdication of Germany’s last king, the year 1919 was a turning point, and for the Dresden art collections, this was no different: They were placed in the care of the Ministry of Culture, while numerous artworks were given to the House of Wettin as indemnification.

unbekannt (Hersteller), Brückmann, H. (um 1790–1847 tätig)(V — At the same time, committed citizens were active even back then in associations that supported the collections, purchasing, for example, works by Chagall, Klee and Kandinsky. These works, however, were largely removed from the collections in 1937 during the Nazis’ “degenerate art” campaign: In total, the Kunstsammlungen lost 41 paintings, 28 drawings and 24 sculptures to the campaign.

Hans Posse, who had directed the Gemäldegalerie since 1910, became the director of the planned “Führermuseum” in Linz in 1939 under Hitler, meaning that Dresden took on a central role in the Nazis’ art transaction system. As early as 1938, preparations for moving museum treasures got underway and by 1943 most of the artworks were safely stored in the region.

Blick auf das zerstörte Residenzschloss — After the devastating bomb attacks in February 1945, many of the museum buildings, including the Residenzschloss (Royal Palace) and the Zwinger were reduced to rubble.

Rückkehr der Gemälde aus Berlin am 27. April 1956 — The majority of the objects outside Dresden survived the war; they were then taken by the Red Army to Moscow, Kiev and Leningrad as trophy art. In 1955, the masterworks of the Gemäldegalerie returned to Dresden, followed in 1958 by a large part of the remaining holdings.

Rückseite des Gemäldes Enthauptung der heiligen Reparata — In difficult conditions, the buildings were reconstructed and the collections made accessible to the public again. In 1968, the Museum für Volkskunst (Museum of Folk Art) entered the family of the Kunstsammlungen and in 1999 the Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon returned. In 2010, the ethnographical museums in Dresden, Leipzig and Herrnhut joined the museum network.

With German reunification, it became possible to begin the reconstruction of the Dresden Residenzschloss as a residence for the arts and sciences, which had been initiated in East Germany. Looking at some of the events of the past few years gives a vivid impression of how the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden keep changing.
Since 1 November 2016, Marion Ackermann has been Director General of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.