The Hamburger Kunsthalle is showcasing the vitality of its collection by presenting a small selection of the most important new acquisitions and donations for its Department of Prints and Drawings in the exhibition Collecting for Hamburg. Outstanding drawings and prints spanning the period from the 17th century to classical modernism will be featured, selected from a total of well over 4,000 new acquisitions made over the last 15 years. The works on paper presented here, most of them on public display for the first time, either close gaps in the collection or reinforce existing focuses – in keeping with the purchasing traditions of the Kunsthalle.

They strikingly underscore the international importance of the Department of Prints and Drawings with its holdings that have evolved over the course of nearly 150 years. The Kunsthalle is especially pleased to be able to show visitors this particular selection of treasures, as these are works that, due to their light-sensitivity, are usually relegated to the background, in the reserved-seeming Department of Prints and Drawings with its total of more than 130,000 drawings, watercolours and prints on paper.

Works have been acquired by artists including the following, who will be represented starting in June 2017 in the Kunsthalle’s online database: Franz Aspruck, Nikolaus Knüpfer, Paul Decker, Matthias Scheits, Salvator Rosa, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Simon Vouet, Felice Giani, Giovanni David, Luigi Sabatelli, Vincenzo Camuccini, Giuseppe Cammarano, Carlo Labruzzi, Friedrich Reclam, Salomon Gessner, Jakob Philipp Hackert, Franz Kobell, Johann Christian Reinhart, Hendrik Voogd, Joseph Rebell, Philipp Otto Runge, Bartolomeo Pinelli, François-Marius Granet, Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, Theodor Leopold Weller, Friedrich Olivier, Johannes Riepenhausen, Carl Willhelm Götzloff, Jacob Gensler, Paul Gauguin, Max Liebermann, Franz Nölken, Edvard Munch, Lovis Corinth, Paul Klee, Adolf Hölzel, Edouard Vuillard, Henri Matisse, Emil Nolde, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Max Pechstein, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff.