CODART, Dutch and Flemish art in museums worldwide

Bernhard Schnackenburg (1938–2024)

The news has reached us that Bernhard Schnackenburg, former director of the Old Masters Picture Gallery in Kassel, has passed away on 17 July 2024 at the age of 85.

Bernhard Schnackenburg was born in Bremen in 1938 and, after graduating from high school, initially studied law and then switched to art history after taking state exams and working as a court trainee. In 1971 he received his doctorate under Wolfgang Braunfels in Munich with a thesis on the drawings of the brothers Adriaen and Isaack van Ostade, which was expanded and published as an two-volume monograph in 1981. From 1974 to 1979 he worked at the Kunsthalle Bremen, where he curated many exhibitions before taking over the management of the Neue Galerie in Kassel in 1979. From 1983 to 2003 he was the director of the Old Masters Picture Gallery in Kassel. Here he not only accompanied the extensive renovation work at Schloss Wilhelmshöhe, but was also able to present a two-volume catalogue of the Gemäldegalerie in 1996, which presented the entire inventory for the first time and is still fundamental today. As one of CODART’s founding members, Schnackenburg attended the first two congresses in 1998 and 1999.

Bernhard Schnackenburg upon his retirement in 2003
Photo: Hessen Kassel Heritage

Despite these various activities, publications on Dutch painting and drawing in the seventeenth century form the focus of his work. In 2016 he published his last major book, the monograph about Jan Lievens. The engagement with the work of Jan Lievens went back to the preparation of the exhibition The Young Rembrandt. Puzzles about his beginnings, which was shown in cooperation with the Rembrandthuis and the Rembrandt Research Project in Kassel and Amsterdam in 2001 and 2002 and presented a new look at Rembrandt’s beginnings. It was the most successful exhibition to date at Schloss Wilhelmshöhe. He has achieved great things for Hessen Kassel Heritage, especially for the Old Masters Picture Gallery.

Text and images courtesy of Justus Lange.