Gustav Friedrich Waagen (11 February 1794 – 15 July 1868) was a German art historian. His opinions were greatly respected in England, where he was invited to give evidence before the royal commission inquiring into the condition and future of the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current di ...

, for which he was a leading candidate to become director. He died on a visit to

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

in 1868.

Biography

Waagen was born in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

, the son of a painter and a nephew and lover of the poet

Ludwig Tieck Johann Ludwig Tieck (; ; 31 May 177328 April 1853) was a German poet, fiction writer, translator, and critic. He was one of the founding fathers of the Romanticism, Romantic movement in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Early life Tieck w ...

. Having passed through the college of Hirschberg, Silesia (modern

Jelenia Góra Jelenia Góra (; ; ) is a historic city in southwestern Poland, within the historical region of Lower Silesia. Jelenia Góra is situated in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship, close to the Karkonosze mountain range running along the Polish-Czech bo ...

), he volunteered for service in the Napoleonic campaign of 1813–14, and on his return attended the lectures at Breslau University. He devoted himself to the study of art, which he pursued in the great European galleries, first in Germany, then in the Netherlands and Italy. A pamphlet on the brothers

Van Eyck Van Eyck or Van Eijk () is a Dutch language, Dutch toponymic surname. ''Eijck'', ''Eyck'', ''Eyk'' and ''Eijk'' are all archaic spellings of modern Dutch ("oak") and the surname literally translates as "from/of oak". However, in most cases, the fam ...

led in 1832 to his appointment to the directorship of the newly founded Berlin Museum (now vastly expanded as the

Berlin State Museums The Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (Berlin State Museums) are a group of institutions in Berlin, Germany, comprising seventeen museums in five clusters; several research institutes; libraries; and supporting facilities. They are overseen by the ...

), although his main interest was the paintings in what is now the

Gemäldegalerie, Berlin The (, Painting Gallery) is an art museum in Berlin, Germany, and the museum where the main selection of paintings belonging to the Berlin State Museums (''Staatliche Museen zu Berlin'') is displayed. It was first opened in 1830, and the cur ...

. The result of a journey to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

was an important publication in three volumes, ''Kunstwerke und Künstler in England und Paris'' (Berlin, 1837–39), which became the basis for his more important ''The Treasures of Art in Great Britain'', translated by

Elizabeth Eastlake Elizabeth, Lady Eastlake (17 November 1809 – 2 October 1893), born Elizabeth Rigby, was an English people, English author, art critic and art historian who made regular contributions to the ''Quarterly Review''. She is known for her writing a ...

, (4 vols, London, 1854 and 1857). This remains a significant source for the

provenance Provenance () is the chronology of the ownership, custody or location of a historical object. The term was originally mostly used in relation to works of art, but is now used in similar senses in a wide range of fields, including archaeology, p ...

of paintings then in English collections. Although Waagen has been criticised for his "amateurish and erratic expertise" by modern standards, his work was regarded as highly authoritative for the following half-century. In 1844, he was appointed professor of art history at

Berlin University The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humboldt ...

, and in 1861 he was called to

St Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

as adviser in the arranging and naming of the pictures in the imperial collection. On his return, he published a book on the Hermitage collection (Munich, 1864). Among his other publications are some essays on

Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens ( ; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat. He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens' highly charged compositions reference erudite aspects of clas ...

, Mantegna and Signorelli; ''Kunstwerke und Künstler in Deutschland''; and ''Die vornehmsten Kunstdenkmäler in Wien''. In 1849 Waagen became a corresponding member, living abroad, of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands. In 1861, he was elected an honorary associate of the

Imperial Academy of Arts The Imperial Academy of Arts, informally known as the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, was an art academy in Saint Petersburg, founded in 1757 by Ivan Shuvalov, the founder of the Imperial Moscow University, under the name ''Academy of th ...

References

Attribution: * *

External links

Online Text
''Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss., &c., &c'', By Gustav Friedrich Waagen, Elizabeth Rigby Eastlake,

Algernon Graves Algernon Graves (1845–1922) was a British art historian and art dealer, who specialised in the documentation of the exhibition and sale of works of art. He created reference sources that began the modern discipline of provenance research. Ear ...

. Translated by Elizabeth Rigby Eastlake, published by J. Murray, 1854, (Original from the New York Public Library)
Art as Existence
Gabriele Guercio - The MIT Press, 2006
Gustav Waagen
in the

Dictionary of Art Historians The ''Dictionary of Art Historians'' (DAH) is an online encyclopedia of topics relating to art historians, art critics and their dictionaries. The mission of the project is to provide free, reliable, English-language information on published art h ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Waagen, Gustav Friedrich 1794 births 1868 deaths Scholars from the Kingdom of Prussia German art historians Writers from Hamburg Directors of the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin German male non-fiction writers Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Scholars of Netherlandish art