Museum Wiesbaden

Contact

Museum Wiesbaden

Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 2,
65185 Wiesbaden,
Germany

phone +49 (0) 611 3352250

mail museum@museum-wiesbaden.de

The Neess Collection is one of the most important European private collections of Art Nouveau and Symbolism. In 2017, 570 works from the collection were donated to Museum Wiesbaden and are since then on permanent display. The collection includes numerous fin-de-siècle masterpieces of art-historical significance. The paintings, pastels and watercolours, more than ninety in all, are the work of notable artists from all over Europe. Maxence, as well as Alphonse Osbert, while examples of works from the Belgian movement are by the hand of Fernand Khnopff and Jean Delville.

Major artists

Silver portrait of Fernand Khnopff
Fernand Khnopff 
Painter
Silver portrait of Ludwig von Hofmann
Ludwig von Hofmann 
Painter
Portrait of Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach
Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach 
Painter
Silver portrait of Jean Delville
Jean Delville 
Painter
Black and white portrait of Auguste Daum
Auguste Daum
Glass maker and art industrialist
Black and white portrait of Antonin Daum
Antonin Daum
Glass maker and art industrialist
Black and white portrait of Hans Christiansen
Hans Christiansen 
Painter, graphic artist, designer
Silver portrait of Louis Majorelle
Louis Majorelle 
Cabinetmaker
Black and white portrait of Hector Guimard
Hector Guimard 
Architect, decorator
Silver portrait of Émile Gallé
Émile Gallé
Master glassmaker, cabinetmaker and ceramist

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French Symbolism is represented by Gustave Moreau and his pupil Edgar  Paintings by Franz von Stuck, Heinrich Vogeler, Ludwig von Hofmann and Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach exemplify significant German trends within Symbolism and Jugendstil. The collection also includes works from Great Britain by renowned Pre-Raphaelite artists such as Evelyn De Morgan and John Melhuish Strudwick. In the field of sculpture, works by Alphonse Mucha and George Minne should be mentioned. The core of the collection is the group of decorative art pieces, encompassing furniture, glass, porcelain and ceramics with entire suites of furniture by Émile Gallé, Hector Guimard and Louis Majorelle, as well as by Bernhard Pankok and Richard Riemerschmid. The collection is also enriched by an abundance of art glass pieces with vases, bowls, lamps and chandeliers by Émile Gallé, Muller Frères, Daum Frères, Johann Lotz Witwe and Tiffany.

The display of porcelain and ceramics includes pieces by Ernst Wahliss, Michael Powolny and Albin Muller. Also, the interconnectedness of the collection has to be stressed: Not only can the audience visit the collection within Hans Volckers Gesamtkunstwerk of museal architecture; its interior design building the bridge between Art Nouveau and Historism. Artists such as Ernst Riegel, Hans Christiansen, Albin Muller and Henry van de Velde have left behind traces of Art Nouveau in the city of Wiesbaden – and their works in the collection connect to that local heritage. The collection offers a representative insight, in terms of both quality and quantity, into the artistic production of the fin de siècle between Art Nouveau and Symbolism.