A book of sketches by Caspar David Friedrich dating from 1804, and believed to be the last in private ownership, has been jointly acquired by the museum authorities of Berlin, Dresden and Weimar from the Berlin auction house Villa Grisebach.
Known as the Karlsruhe Sketchbook, it contains drawings by Friedrich of the Dresden area and is one of just six of his sketchbooks known to still exist. Four of these are in the collection of the Norwegian National Museum in Oslo, and just one is owned by a German museum, the Dresden Museum of Prints, Drawings and Photographs.
“How fortunate that this joint acquisition by three cultural institutions could succeed, with such generous support from our partners,” said Marion Ackermann, director of Dresden’s State Art Collections. “This could be a model for the future museum acquisitions policy: sharing is the new having!”
The sketchbook was offered at auction at Villa Grisebach in November last year, but the winning bidder later withdrew. The Ernst von Siemens Art Foundation, which frequently acquires art for German museums, then negotiated with Villa Grisebach to purchase the object at its own risk, according to Martin Hoernes, secretary general of the foundation.
The Cultural Foundation of the German Federal States also contributed to the acquisition. A joint press statement issued by the three museum authorities did not reveal the agreed price, but the estimate at auction was between €1 million and €1.5 million.
“This means it can be shown in exhibitions in the anniversary year,” Hoernes said in a statement. The sketchbook will first be shown at Berlin’s Museum of Prints and Drawings before it travels to Dresden, where Caspar David Friedrich. Where it All Started opens on 24 August, focussing on the 40 years the artist spent in the city. From there it will travel to Weimar for an exhibition called Caspar David Friedrich, Goethe and Romanticism in Weimar.
The Dresden show will be the third major exhibition to mark Friedrich’s 250th birthday this year. An exhibition at Hamburg’s Kunsthalle that ran until 1 April attracted a house record of 335,000 visitors, with tickets selling out a month before it ended.
In Berlin, Caspar David Friedrich: Infinite Landscapes has drawn more than 200,000 visitors to the Alte Nationalgalerie so far. The museum has said it will extend daily opening hours to 9 p.m. for the last week of the show, from 30 July to 4 August.
Caspar David Friedrich. Where it All Started, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden, until 5 January 2025
Caspar David Friedrich, Goethe and Romanticism in Weimar, Klassik Stiftung Weimar, until 2 March 2025