Ruhmeshalle in MunichVon Klenze's grave in MunichThe New Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia, was one of the first museums designed in 1838 by von Klenze specifically to house art collections (1905).Painting of an idealized reconstruction of the Acropolis and Areios Pagos in Athens, by von Klenze (1846).
Leo von Klenze (born Franz Karl Leopold von Klenze; 29 February 1784 – 26 January 1864) was a German architect and painter. He was the court architect of Ludwig I of Bavaria.
Von Klenze was a devotee of Neoclassicism and one of the most prominent representatives of Greek revival style.
Von Klenze designed and arranged museum galleries in Munich, including the Glyptothek, Ludwig I's museum for antique sculpture, and the Alte Pinakothek, a painting gallery for the pictures of the Wittelsbach collection that opened in 1836.[citation needed] The Alte Pinakothek was situated in an open park land, the Kunstareal, and became a national gallery.[1] The functional logic and the modernity of the Alte Pinakothek were much admired. The Alte Pinakothek was acknowledged as the most advanced museum building in Europe and von Klenze was invited to London in 1836 by the House of Commons. There, was interviewed about Bavarian cultural policies and the Alte Pinakothek. Von Klenze detailed the educational and political aspects of the Munich museums, which were free to the public.[2]
When Greece won its independence, Ludwig I's son Otto became the country's first king. Von Klenze was invited to Athens to submit plans of city reconstruction in the style of Ancient Greece. In 1838, Nicholas I of Russia commissioned von Klenze to design a building for the Hermitage Museum, a public museum to display the collection of antiquities, paintings, coins and medals, cameos, prints and drawings, and books that had been assembled by the House of Romanov.
Von Klenze was not only an architect, but also an accomplished painter. He depicted ancient buildings in many of his paintings, serving as models for his own architectural projects. Von Klenze studied ancient architecture during his travels to Italy and Greece. He also participated in excavations of ancient buildings in Athens and submitted proposals for the restoration of the Acropolis.[citation needed]
Von Klenze collected works of important contemporary German painters. He sold his collection, including 58 landscapes and genre paintings, to Ludwig I of Bavaria in 1841. These paintings form the core of the Neue Pinakothek museum's collection.
Von Klenze married Maria Felicitas Blangini (1790–1844), a beauty at the court of Ludwig I. Their granddaughter Irene Athenais von Klenze became Countess Courten (1850–1916).
Von Klenze died in 1864 and was buried in the Alter Südfriedhof in Munich.
Paintings
Landscape with the Castle of Massa di Carrara, 1827
Reconstruction of the Acropolis and Areopagus in Athens, 1846
^Simon Knell (2016). National Galleries. Taylor & Francis. p. 84. ISBN9781317432425.
^Carole Paul, ed. (2012). The First Modern Museums of Art: The Birth of an Institution in 18th- and Early-19th-century Europe. J. Paul Getty Museum. p. 325. ISBN9781606061206.
