Lenbachhaus
Franz von Lenbach's Italian villa of 1891 — and, since 2013 with the gleaming Foster extension, one of Munich's most important galleries. The world's densest collection on the Blaue Reiter — Kandinsky, Marc, Münter, Macke.
Lenbach's Tusculum
The Munich "prince of painters" Franz von Lenbach (1836–1904) commissioned Gabriel von Seidl in 1887 to build him an Italian villa on Luisenstraße — a "Tusculum" with studio, gallery and private park. Completed in 1891, the house was Lenbach's home and workshop. After his death in 1924, his widow sold it to the City of Munich (1929). Municipal gallery ever since.
Gabriele Münter's gift
The Lenbachhaus's world status began with a gift: Gabriele Münter, Wassily Kandinsky's long-time partner, donated around 1,000 works from the Blaue Reiter circle to the house on her 80th birthday in 1957 — including some 90 paintings by Kandinsky, 25 by Franz Marc, plus works by August Macke, Paul Klee, Alexej von Jawlensky, Marianne von Werefkin and her own. It remains the most important Blaue Reiter collection in the world.
The Foster extension, 2013
From 2009 to 2013 Norman Foster extended the house with a brass-clad cubic annexe (opened 8 May 2013) — doubling the exhibition space and adding a contemporary counterpart to Lenbach's villa. Plus a dedicated room for the Joseph Beuys installation "Show Your Wound".
Further reading.
More in the
Museum Quarter.
The other buildings of the area — galleries, museums, classicism, industrial history.