Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum — Attraction in Madrid

Truly, truly fantastic collection. I would say out of the three (El Prado, Thyssen, Reína Sofía) I loved the Thyssen the most.

Let me start off by saying that the store was absolutely amazing, the best museum store I’ve been to in Madrid. They have such a wide collection of objects, clothes, jewelry, artwork, etc. I’ve spent more time in the store than I did at one of the exhibitions.

The Loewe Collection in the basement houses some of the world’s renowned crafts pieces. Absolutely beautiful examples of fine craftsmanship.

Moving on to the actual artwork, the first floor is mostly dedicated to landscape art, traditional landscape painting. Absolutely beautiful and stunning. Such a calculated and well-presented exhibition.

The upper floors you really get such a wide variety of paintings and other types of more modern and even contemporary examples of paintings and mixed media. There is one super super hyper realistic painting of Chinatown I believe that was so realistic it looked even more real than a photograph, as if I were looking at a portal to step into Chinatown.

My favorite art section was the surrealist section. They had this gigantic painting (composed of smaller paintings) by Roberto Matta, called the Dazzling Outcast. Dalí’s famous Dream caused by a Bee is also here, along with paintings by Yves Tanguy, Ernst, and some more surrealist artists.

Other notable works and artists include Dega’s Dancers, works by Van Gogh and Monet, Thomas Cole, Max Ernst, Roy Litchenstein, O’Keefe, Gauguin, and so many more.

Unfortunately, I could not get to the more famous works that the Thyssen is known for, such as Carpaccio’s Young Knight in a Landscape, El Greco’s Anunciation, and Van Eyck’s Diptych. 🖼️

Truly a fantastic collection of the Baron Thyssen and his wife. I will be sure to check out this museum completely next time I am traveling...

The Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum is one of the calmest, most serene, and beautiful galleries I have ever visited.

It's true that I was predisposed to like it having heard the (possibly apocryphal) story of how the collection comes to be in Madrid and not London. It is said that the Baron had initially wanted to bequeath his remarkable collection to the United Kingdom. As part of the negotiations a lunch was arranged with the then prime minister, Margaret Thatcher.

True to form, Mrs Thatcher's imperious and forthright manner so irritated the Baron's wife that she retired from lunch earlyon account of her lap dog being unwell and needing her attention.

The collection came to Madrid ;-).

Whatever the veracity of that tale I would have loved this museum regardless. I had come with the singular purpose of seeing one picture.

My mission to see all seventy of the surviving works of Caravaggio had brought me to Madrid where there are three, all in different galleries.

'St Catherine of Alexandria' (1597/8) is significant in the oeuvre of Michelangelo di Merisi in that it is one of the earliest examples of his choosing the rich dark colours that he later contrasted with the lighter ones to such great effect in what we now call the 'chiarascuro'.

Seated by the wheel, on which she met her gruesome end, and adorned with other instruments of torture Catherine is a striking figure.

However, for me the star of the show is her dress. The rich dark folds in what appears to be endless, magnificent are so skillfully painted that standing before it I wanted to reach out and envelop myself within them*.

Magnificent.

For the...

Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza is located along Paseo del Prado in Madrid. This is an important inclusion in the Golden Triangle of Art in Madrid along with fellow art museums, Prado and Queen Sofia. Opening Hours are 10am to 7pm Tuesday to Sunday and 12-4pm on Mondays.

Visitors can enjoy a world-class permanent collection representing a wide range of art periods from the 13th to 20th century and showcasing over 1000 paintings from a who's who list of historical artists. You'll see works by the likes of Fra Angelico, Jan van Eyck, Veronese, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Gainsborough, Kandinsky, Dali, Renoir, van Gogh, Chagall, Pollock amongst many many others.

The main collection is spaced out over 3 floors. Your visit will start on the 2nd floor with galleries arranged mostly in chronological fashion, allowing you work your way from earlier periods to more recent Post Impressionist and Modern art works of the last century on the ground floor. We spent around 90 minutes on the 2nd and 1st floor and another 30 minutes in the smaller ground floor exhibition area.

The ground floor is where you find ticket booth, gift shop, access to the museum cafe as well as temporary exhibition spaces. Photography is allowed through the permanent collection. However, it is not allowed in the temporary exhibition area.

Overall, we very much enjoyed our time at Thyssen Museum in Madrid, finding it a nice complement to Prado and Queen Sofia. This is a world-class venue and a place that will be greatly appreciated by anyone who enjoys...