Sanssouci Picture Gallery

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The Sanssouci Picture Gallery in Potsdam, Germany, was built from 1755 to 1764 during the reign of Frederick II, under the supervision of Johann Gottfried Büring. It sits east of Sanssouci Palace and is the oldest surviving museum built for a ruler in Germany. Frederick II was a passionate art collector. In his youth he favored contemporary Rococo paintings by Antoine Watteau, but after becoming king in 1740 he also collected history paintings and works from Renaissance, Mannerism and Baroque artists, mainly Italian and Flemish.

In 1829, when the Altes Museum in Berlin opened, about fifty of Frederick’s paintings were moved there. They included Correggio’s Leda, several Rembrandts, works by Rubens, Van Dyck, and Watteau, and all the marble statues. In 1929–30 the gallery was reopened and 120 of the 159 Frederick-owned works were brought back from Berlin.

During World War II the paintings were moved to Rheinsberg Palace; only ten returned in 1946, and many were lost. A large collection of works seized by the Soviet Union was returned in 1958, though some pieces remain in Russian holdings.

The building stands on the site of a former greenhouse Frederick used for tropical fruit. Büring replaced it with a long, single-story yellow structure crowned by a dome. Marble statues decorate the garden side between the tall windows; most statues are by Heymüller and Benckert and show allegorical figures of arts and sciences, with portraits of artists on the keystone heads. The gallery hall has a richly gilded, curved ceiling and a floor of white and yellow Italian marble in a diamond pattern. The green walls hold a dense Baroque arrangement of framed paintings. Notable works include Caravaggio’s The Incredulity of Saint Thomas and Van Dyck’s Pentecost and Four Evangelists, plus a Saint Hieronymus from the workshop of Rubens. Next to the main hall is a smaller cabinet that displays smaller-format paintings.