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The Hamburger Kunsthalle was founded by local citizens in 1869. The museum’s Old Masters collection is distinctive for its wide historical sweep: from the early fifteenth century to the end of the eighteenth. The emphasis is on Dutch and Flemish paintings of the seventeenth century, of which more than 500 are held.
In 1863 and 1879 respectively, bequests of mainly Dutch paintings by private collectors Georg Ernst Harzen and Johannes Amsinck, in addition to gifts from other Hamburg collectors, established the core of the Old Masters collection. From 1886, the Kunsthalle’s first director, Alfred Lichtwark, played a key role in shaping the paintings collection. Among other things, it is thanks to him that the Kunsthalle was able to acquire seven Dutch church interiors of the finest quality, including masterpieces by Pieter Saenredam and Gerard Houckgeest. With outstanding works across all the genres—by Rembrandt, Pieter de Hooch, Jan Steen, Pieter Lastman, Rachel Ruysch, Jan Massys, Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, and Gerard van Honthorst—the collection presents a comprehensive survey of the historical developments in Dutch and Flemish art.
Meanwhile the Kunsthalle’s Department of Prints and Drawings, with approximately 1,400 or so drawings by Dutch artists, has one of the most renowned collections of graphic works of the period 1450 to 1850. It also holds extensive groups of work by individual artists such as Adriaen van Ostade and Allaert van Everdingen, as well as important drawings by Rembrandt, Jan Brueghel the Elder, Lucas van Leyden, Hendrick Goltzius, Jacob van Ruisdael, and Willem Buytewech.
Thanks to public engagement, bequests, and donations, the Old Masters collection has experienced continual growth right up to the present day. Most recently, nine landscape paintings previously in private ownership, including works by Joos de Momper, David Vinckboons, and Jan van Goyen, entered the Kunsthalle collection in 2024.
Sandra Pisot, Curator, Head of Old Masters Collection (February 2026)