CALOUSTE GULBENKIAN MUSEUM

Description

Essentials about the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in brief

Art lovers on a Lisbon trip should definitely have seen the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian (Calouste Gulbenkian Museum), which contains the extraordinary collection of art patron and multi-billionaire Calouste Gulbenkian. The museum was built in the late 1960s and expanded in 1984 to include the Museum of Modern Art, located right next to it. The Calouste Gulbenkian Museum houses an enormously wide range of art objects from different eras, from antiquity through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to modernity.

The history of the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum

Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian came from a wealthy Armenian family. After studying engineering in London, Gulbenkian began to study oil production in the Middle East. Within a few years, he rose to become one of the oil industry’s most respected oil experts and unavoidable negotiators. He obtained oil production concessions and held a five percent stake in the Iraq Petroleum Company. His involvement in a variety of oil deals made Gulbenkian one of the most important and wealthiest oil magnates in the world.

After his Paris residence was occupied by the Germans during World War II, Gulbenkian, now a British citizen, defected to neutral Portugal. He lived in Lisbon in the Hotel Aviz until the end of his life and also established his foundation in Portugal in the last years of his life. Gulbenkian died in 1955 as the richest man in the world. Gulbenkian invested part of his money in his ever-growing art collection, which contained real art treasures.

The exhibition of the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum

The Calouste Gulbenkian Museum contains only part of the Gulbenkian collections. The permanent exhibition represents the versatile art interest of its founder and includes a wide range of art objects from all periods. It is organized chronologically and geographically. The exhibition begins with Egyptian, Greek and Roman exhibits and continues with Islamic, Armenian and Far Eastern art.

Other sections deal with European book art and European painting since the 15th century, among others. The works of Rogier van der Weyden, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Frans Hals, Rembrandt van Rijn, Peter Paul Rubens, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Hubert Robert, Édouard Manet and Edgar Degas deserve special attention. Also worth seeing are the collections of sculptures (mainly from the 18th and 19th centuries), Renaissance tapestries (from Italy and Flanders) and French furniture (from the time of Louis XV and Louis XVI).