Second day in Madrid: The Thyssen collection

Yesterday I went to visit the Thysenn collection which makes up a trio of fine museums with the Prado and Reina Sofia.

The collection was amassed by the super rich industrialists the Thysssens – father and son.

It was offered to London in the 1980s who suggested Canary Wharf whilst Madrid offered the Palazzo Bornemisza.

That – and the Baron’s Spanish wife Carmen – swung it for Madrid.

It’s a wonderful collection on three floors, from the 13th century to the present day, in which every major artist is represented.

Religious medieval art does not float my boat, nor stiff portraiture, so I skimmed through the second floor for  the modern collection spanning the last 150 years.

I was particularly struck by an Edward Hopper – one of my favourite painters – and the German expressionists.

It was not especially crowded with paintings hung in spacious rooms off a corridor.

The Thyssens certainly had a good eye as well as deep pockets to acquire such quality spanning many centuries.

There was a Dégas ballet dancer, a Gauguin, Monet and many Dutch masters as well as Corot.

Of the moderns there was a room of Lucian Freud and a Jackson Pollock as well as Mirò, Picasso and Braque.

Some collectors are criticised for keeping their art in tax free depots, but not the Thyssens who have left theirs to the Spanish nation.

London’s loss was Madrid’s gain.