Handpicked experience · Madrid
Madrid, Spain
Entry to the Madrid collection that exists to fill the gaps left by royal taste, hung chronologically from the top floor down so that five centuries arrive in order as you descend.
The institution is one of Madrid's most important art museums and is part of the Golden Triangle of Art
It houses over 1,600 masterpiece paintings created by renowned artists such as Rembrandt, Gauguin and Picasso
Enjoy viewing a diverse collection of art dating back to the 13th century to the avant-grade works of the 20th century
By exclusive items inspired by the iconic works of art created by well-known artist , designers and local artisans !
The schools and periods missing from the city's other collections
A chronological route running downward through the building
Early panels, Dutch interiors, Impressionism and twentieth-century movements in one visit
A converted palace laid out around the sequence of the hang
A collection small enough to see properly in one go
Self-paced entry with no fixed finishing time
Admission to the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid, the third point of the city's museum triangle and the one that is easiest to explain: it holds what the other two do not.
The collection was built up over two generations of one family, and it was put together deliberately as a survey — a line running from the fourteenth century to the late twentieth, with an example of each thing rather than a deep pile of any one.
That produces a museum you can actually walk through. Spain's royal collection was formed by monarchs buying what they liked, so the national holdings are magnificent in some directions and empty in others. This is where the gaps are filled: early Italian panels, Dutch domestic scenes, German Expressionism, Impressionists, American landscape and the twentieth-century movements that never entered a Spanish palace.
The hang is chronological from the top floor down. Go up first and descend, and five hundred years arrive in order, one staircase at a time. Do it the other way and you spend the visit walking backwards through art history, which is a surprisingly effective way to make none of it stick.
The building is a converted palace, and the conversion was designed around this idea — rooms that are small enough to hold your attention, in a sequence with only one sensible direction.
By the late twentieth century this was one of the largest private collections in the world, and where it would end up became an international question, with several states making offers. It came here, on loan first and then by purchase, and the palace beside the Prado was rebuilt to house it.
The interior walls are a soft terracotta pink, chosen against the advice of people who thought a museum should be white. It works: the colour sits behind gold grounds and dark Dutch interiors far better than white does.
The strength is breadth, so the pleasure is in comparison. Two rooms apart you can see how a Flemish painter and an Italian one, working the same decade, disagreed entirely about what light does. Portraits across five centuries make the point even faster.
It is a manageable museum, which is its other advantage — a full visit is a matter of hours rather than a campaign, and the ticket lets you set your own pace. The permanent collection occupies three floors, temporary exhibitions are usually downstairs, and the quietest hours are early. Large bags go to the cloakroom, and photography rules are posted at the entrance to each room.
Open it to pick a date and work out the price.
What the fare covers, and what to budget for separately.
The practical detail, and the answers people actually ask for.
It was formed as a survey rather than by royal taste, so it covers the periods and schools the national collections never acquired.
Two generations of the same family, buying with the stated aim of representing the whole span of Western painting rather than a single school.
Upwards first, then down. The hang runs chronologically from the top floor, so descending takes you forward through time.
Hours rather than a whole day. It is deliberately a manageable size, and the ticket does not fix how long you stay.
Several countries wanted it in the late twentieth century; it came here first on loan and was then bought outright, with a palace rebuilt to hold it.
Because the colour was chosen to sit behind gold-ground panels and dark interiors, which it does far better than white.
Compare rather than tick off — the same subject or decade painted in two traditions, which is what a survey collection is uniquely good for.
They are usually staged on the lower level and shown separately from the permanent floors.