Artists' Letters from the Anne-Marie Springer Collection at Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid

For the first time in Spain, from May 30 – September 25, 2022, the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum is presenting a selection of letters and postcards written by painters such as Delacroix, Manet, Degas, Monet, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Matisse, Juan Gris, Frida Kahlo and Lucian Freud, loaned from the Anne-Marie Springer collection. They are presented in dialogue with works by these and other artists from the permanent collection, resulting in an original exhibition that allows visitors a close-up, personal focus on the writers of these letters and their creations.

Letter to Paul Gauguin with drawing, Eragne sur Epte. May 1885. Ink on paper, Anne-Marie Springer Collection

The selection of letters and postcards on display is based on the criteria that gave rise to this unique collection, namely its focus on love letters. They also, however, express ideas (sometimes illustrated with small sketches by the artists), insecurities, a defense of their art, the celebration of success, details of the creative process of a work, references to historical events and a wide range of emotions. that bring us close to these artists' lives and personalities in a different way. Worthy of particular mention are the letters written in wartime by Egon Schiele, Fernand Léger, and Gala and Max Pechstein, as well as the happiness, consolation and healing which their authors found in the contemplation and practice of art and which their correspondence conveys.

Ranging from the most everyday issues to the most aesthetic and professional speculations, these letters allow us to fully enter the lives of some of the key figures in the history of art of the past two centuries while resonating in the works in the museum. The result is an enriching interaction of ideas, works, calligraphy and painting which encourages us to see the works in a new way.