Tour Details
- Duration
- 3 hours
- Product Type
- Tour
- Venues
- Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum
Select a date
Tour Description
Housed in the remodeled eighteenth-century Palacio de Villahermosa, the Thyssen-Bornemisza is Madrid’s second most important museum, located just a few minutes walk from the Prado. It has both a permanent collection, once the world’s largest private collection of Old Master and Modern paintings, and the Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, on loan to the museum since 2004. This 3-hour private Thyssen Bornemisza Museum tour with skip-the-line tickets will traverse the collection, from fourteenth-century European paintings to twentieth-century American masterpieces. In the company of an expert art historian, our tour will weave the history and context of these works into the fascinating story of three generations of collecting by the Thyssen-Bornemisza family.
Tour Itinerary
Our tour begins in the Permanent Collection, displayed chronologically across three floors. Highlights include Duccio’s panel from the Siena Cathedral’s altarpiece, Jan van Eyck’s *Annunciation* diptych, and Ghirlandaio’s luminous portrait of Giovanna Tornabuoni, once owned by J.P. Morgan. We’ll also explore masterpieces by European artists from the 16th to 18th centuries, ranging from religious paintings to landscapes and portraits, many acquired by Baron Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza during the early 20th century. Additionally, we’ll delve into the remarkable Dutch 17th-century works on the first floor and discover the museum’s surprising strength in American art, featuring Hudson River School landscapes and pieces by Homer, Sargent, and others. The collection also boasts exceptional German Expressionist works like Kirchner’s *Street with Red Streetwalker* and Franz Marc’s *The Dream,* reflecting the baron’s passion for diverse artistic movements.
Descending to the ground floor, we’ll encounter 20th-century art, including Cubist masterpieces by Picasso and Braque and photorealistic works by Richard Estes. The tour concludes in the museum’s expansion, featuring the baroness Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza’s collection. Here, we’ll see Old Master works like Vanvitelli’s *Piazza Navona* vedute, American Luminist landscapes, Impressionist and Post-Impressionist gems, including Gauguin’s *Mata Mua,* and early modernist pieces. This section also offers insight into the challenges of curating a world-class collection in the 21st century, celebrating the shared vision of the baron and baroness in creating a truly global museum.
Descending to the ground floor, we’ll encounter 20th-century art, including Cubist masterpieces by Picasso and Braque and photorealistic works by Richard Estes. The tour concludes in the museum’s expansion, featuring the baroness Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza’s collection. Here, we’ll see Old Master works like Vanvitelli’s *Piazza Navona* vedute, American Luminist landscapes, Impressionist and Post-Impressionist gems, including Gauguin’s *Mata Mua,* and early modernist pieces. This section also offers insight into the challenges of curating a world-class collection in the 21st century, celebrating the shared vision of the baron and baroness in creating a truly global museum.
Experts
- Is this tour wheelchair accessible? The museum is entirely accessible to wheelchairs. Please contact us to discuss in more detail your mobility concerns so that we can best advise.
- What are skip-the-line tickets? For this tour, your tickets are pre-purchased which allows you to skip the ticket office line upon arrival at the museum. You may still have to wait in a security line or in a line to have your pre-purchased ticket scanned.
Where You'll Start
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31 Reviews
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Vanessa is super knowledgeable and passionate about art and art history. She walked us through this fantastic museum, covering literally centuries of art and artists, and helped us prioritize what we stopped to see and what we walked by and taught us a great deal. We would have been completely overwhelmed by the volume of the collection without her expert guidance.
Karen
May 27, 2024
Our experience with Context has been consistently excellent over the years and today’s tours of the Prada and then the Thyssen were both wonderful.
Dan
May 19, 2024
Vanessa was very enjoyable and we learned a lot. Highly recommend.
Anna
May 5, 2024