Schack Collection

The Schack Collection, known until 2009 as the Schack-Galerie or Schackgalerie, is a museum in Munich that ranks among the city's principal permanent art galleries. It is administered by the Bavarian State Picture Collection (Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen) and specializes in 19th-century German art. The collection preserves the character of a private 19th-century collector's passion, having remained essentially unchanged since the death of its founder.

The collection originated with Count Adolf Friedrich von Schack, who moved to Munich in 1856 at the invitation of King Maximilian II of Bavaria. He began acquiring paintings systematically from 1857, when he purchased his first work, The Vision of Ezekiel by Bonaventura Genelli. Unlike casual buyers, Schack acted as a patron who supported Munich artists by purchasing entire groups of works at prices in the middle to upper range of the market. By the time of his death in 1894, he had amassed approximately 200 paintings by German artists and some 70 copies after Old Masters.

In his 1874 will, Schack bequeathed the collection and his palace to the German Emperor on the condition that it remain in its existing building. Although he later anticipated the collection might move to Berlin, Emperor Wilhelm II chose to keep it in Munich after 1894 to avoid fueling anti-Prussian sentiment in Bavaria, and purchased the palace from Schack's heirs. The collection passed to Prussian state administration in 1932, then to the Free State of Bavaria in 1939, when it was incorporated into the Bavarian State Picture Collections. Contrary to Schack's stipulation that the collection remain intact, Adolf Hitler planned to merge it with the Neue Pinakothek in a never-realized gallery at Königsplatz.

The collection centers on German Romanticism and 19th-century German painting, with particular emphasis on subjects drawn from Christian doctrine, contemporary literature, and mythology reflecting Schack's own literary interests. Landscape paintings depicting Germany, Italy, Spain, and Greece also feature prominently, often corresponding to Schack's own travels. The holdings include original paintings and approximately 70 copies after Old Masters, notably major works of Venetian painting such as Giorgione's Pastoral Concert and Titian's Pesaro Madonna, Venus of Urbino, and Portrait of Emperor Charles V. The copyists included Franz von Lenbach, whose Titian copies for Schack count among the finest 19th-century painted copies in Germany, and August Wolf. The 45 drawings in Schack's possession, mainly by Genelli and Feuerbach, went to the Munich Kupferstichkabinett (now the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München) rather than being included in the bequest. Four cartoon designs by Genelli passed to the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and are now in the Staatliches Museum Schwerin.

The collection includes major works by leading German Romantic and 19th-century painters: Anselm Feuerbach, Moritz von Schwind, Arnold Böcklin, Franz von Lenbach, Carl Spitzweg, and Carl Rottmann. Lenbach's role was dual, as both a copyist of Old Masters and an original painter represented in the collection. The copy after Giorgione's Pastoral Concert and the copies after Titian represent significant undertakings in 19th-century German artistic practice. The collection comprises roughly 180 paintings in total.

The collection is housed in a building on Prinzregentenstraße in Munich, constructed in 1907 to 1909 by architect Max Littmann. It was built as an architectural unit with the adjacent former Prussian diplomatic mission, though the two complexes appear as independent structures unified by a common base and cornice. The bright sandstone façades feature an imperial coat of arms and a dedication by Wilhelm II in the tympanum. This Neue Schackgalerie replaced Schack's original villa complex on Brienner Straße 19, which had been expanded between 1872 and 1874 by Lorenz Gedon into a representative Neo-Renaissance palace. The original villa and its gallery wings, where the collection had been displayed from 1862 and publicly accessible from 1866, were destroyed in World War II. The new building opened on 18 September 1909.

The museum occupies its purpose-built gallery on Prinzregentenstraße at the corner of Reitmorstraße in Munich. It operates under the Bavarian State Picture Collection and presents its holdings across seventeen rooms open to the public. The collection's website is maintained as part of the Pinakothek museums portal.