Augusteum, Oldenburg

53°08′10″N 8°13′00″E / 53.1362°N 8.2166°E / 53.1362; 8.2166

Augusteum Oldenburg

200m
220yds

Augusteum Oldenburg

The Augusteum is a German art museum in the city of Oldenburg, Lower Saxony.^[1]^[2] The museum houses the old master painting collection of the State Museum for Art and Cultural History.

The museum building was commissioned by Peter II, Grand Duke of Oldenburg in 1873 to house his collection and opened in 1876 as Oldenburg's first art museum. The building is in the neo-Renaissance style decorated with a grand staircase with paintings by Christian Griepenkerl, all commissioned by the Grand Duke. The Augusteum functioned as a public museum until 1918, when Peter II's son Frederick Augustus II was forced to abdicate and absconded to the Netherlands with the paintings. In a series of sales a third of the collection was sold off, and the town was left with works of secondary importance. The curators have been buying back works since then, a crusade that continues to this day.

The Augusteum presents old master artworks near the northeast corner of the Schlossgarten Oldenburg. The Prinzenpalais, Elisabeth-Anna-Palais, and Schloss Oldenburg are also close by.

Grand staircase

Ceiling
Venus Urania
Prometheus stiehlt das Feuer vom schlafenden Zeus und Ganymed

Fresco an der Stirnseite des Treppenhauses mit Abbildung der „Kunstheroen“ Ernst Willers, Carl Rahl, Theophil von Hansen und Christian Griepenkerl im Selbstporträt

Paintings in the gallery

Herkules befreit Prometheus
Frühstücksstillleben (Gerrit Willemsz. Heda, 1645)
Bewegte See mit Schiffen (Ludolf Backhuysen, nach 1680)
Bildnis eines Knaben (Francesco Salviati, nach 1541)

References

^ "Das Augusteum". Stadt Oldenburg (in German). Germany. Retrieved 13 September 2015.
^ "Augusteum". Oldenburg Tourist (in German). Germany. Retrieved 13 September 2015.