In Vienna, there is a hare that not even the richest person in the world could buy. It is the field hare by Albrecht Dürer from 1502. Experts cannot even estimate the value of the painting. That is how famous and valuable this unique work of art is.
THE ALBERTINA VIENNA IS OPEN 365 DAYS A YEAR
The Albertina Vienna, which is located right behind the State Opera and the famous Hotel Sacher at Albertinaplatz 1, is one of Austria's leading art museums, open 365 days a year. In terms of visitor numbers, the museum, which houses, among other things, one of the most important collections of graphic art in the world, is possibly only surpassed by the Belvedere Museum Vienna, which is housed in the palace of the same name. But the artworks housed in the Albertina are worth millions; if not billions.
The holdings include some 900,000 prints from the late Gothic period to the present and about 50,000 drawings and watercolours, including iconic pieces like Albrecht Dürer's Field Hare, outstanding and breathtaking drawings by Raphael, Michelangelo, Rubens, Rembrandt, Cezanne, Picasso, Schiele and more.
THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE OBSERVATION OF NATURE IN WESTERN ART
Dürer's field hare is not only his most famous study of nature and the first high point of observation of nature in Western art but is also the centrepiece of the Albertina. Of all his drawings, the "little hare" would have the most illustrious career.
With differentiated brushwork, Dürer used watercolours and opaque colours to capture the soft, longer coat on the belly and thighs as well as the short hair on the back of the animal, which was about two years old. He used opaque white to bring out individual hairs, even the tactile hairs on the snout, the whiskers, and the distinctly coloured fur with the black brush.
The animal was painted from the front and at a slight angle; the watchful eyes and the raised ears of the hare give the impression that it wants to jump up from its quiet position and take flight. The cross shaped window frame reflected in the hare's right eye is another reference to reality in this animal study - and perhaps an indication that it was executed in the artist's studio; at the same time, however, it could allude to Christian symbolism and give the nature study a religious significance.
TENDONS, VEINS AND FOLDS OF THE SKIN ARE ALL MODELLED REALISTICALLY
Albrecht Dürer is the undisputed star of the Albertina, where his Praying Hands, a work from 1508, can also be seen. Dürer drew the hands with a fine brush, watered ink and opaque white on primed paper coloured blue. The differentiated use of the white and grey brush and an alternately dense and loosely drawn network of parallel and cross-hatching define the chiaroscuro, determine the direction of the light and realistically model the fine sinews and veins as well as the small wrinkles of the skin.
PONDS AND WATER LILIES AT THE CENTRE OF CLAUDE MONET'S WORK
Also on view is a magnificent late work by Claude Monet. Between 1917 and 1919, in the seclusion of his country house in Giverny, a small town north of Paris, where he had a garden laid out according to Japanese models, he painted "Water Lily Pond" (oil on canvas). Ponds with water lilies were the focus of his work until he died in 1926. The special feature of the water lily painting is the abolition of symmetry in the distribution of the water lilies: the dark reflections take up almost three-quarters of the right-hand side, while the reflections of light from the sky are moved to the far left.
PETER PAUL RUBENS PAINTED HIS SON NIKOLAS AT THE AGE OF ONE YEAR
In Albertina's impressive art collection, which continuously presents special exhibitions, visitors will also find a remarkable painting by the Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens, who painted a portrait of his son Nikolas aged about one year in black chalk and red chalk around 1619. Rubens used the portrait for the head of the infant Jesus in the painting "The Holy Family" (today in the Gemäldegalerie Kassel).
THE HALF-FIGURE OF AN APOSTLE BY LEONARDO DA VINCI
In a world-famous collection, a work by Leonardo da Vinci must always be included. The half-figure of an apostle (silverpoint, pen and brown ink on blue-grounded paper) was painted between 1493 and 1495. The apostle has a face full of character and seems to react to a momentary event in his posture - his head is receding, his hand is unsteadily gathering his cloak, and the raised index finger is a sign of anger - namely the prophecy of Christ at the Last Supper that one of the apostles would betray him.
A LARGE-FORMAT WORK FROM TOULON IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE
The large-format work by Henri Lebasque entitled "On the Green Bench" was created in Sanary near Toulon in the south of France. It is a "paysage à figures", i.e. a landscape populated with figures. The artist's eldest daughter Marthe Lebasque is depicted in a loose-fitting kimono, sitting relaxed on a green-painted garden bench and gazing dreamily out of the picture. Next to her are a few freshly picked flowers, a sun hat and a book - all attributes of a life devoted entirely to idleness. Behind the bench appears a second girl, a few years younger, who is probably the artist's youngest daughter named Nono. Apart from Henri Lebasque, other artists at the beginning of the 20th century painted such landscapes flooded with sunlight and populated by young girls. The Fauves, in particular, to whom Lebasque felt a close affinity, also chose this subject.
COLLECTION OFFERS AN OVERVIEW OF 600 YEARS OF ART HISTORY
All in all, the Albertina's collection provides a rich overview of 600 years of art history. The Albertina's masterpieces, such as Dürer's field hare, cannot be presented permanently due to their sensitivity to light. They are shown in special exhibitions under strict conservation conditions.
COMMENT:
The Albertina not only possesses one of the world's largest and most valuable graphic collections but also presents masterpieces of classical modernism with its "Monet to Picasso" display collection. As the largest Habsburg residential palace, the Albertina is enthroned at the southern tip of the Hofburg on one of the last remnants of Vienna's bastion walls. Where once the Habsburgs' staterooms were, the Albertina exhibits the most exciting art movements of the past 130 years in its show collection: from French Impressionism to German Expressionism to the Russian avant-garde to the present day. Monet's "Water Lily Pond", Degas' "Dancers" and Renoir's "Portrait of a Girl" can be admired as well as paintings by Beckmann, Chagall, Picasso, Malevich, Warhol and Katz.
Explore the Priceless Hare at Albertina Vienna expensive estimated
