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Madrid Tickets Thyssen Bornemisza Museum Carmen Thyssen Collection
A landscape painting in the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection

The Carmen Thyssen Collection in Madrid

Baroness Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza's paintings fill the lettered ground-floor rooms of the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum, from Impressionism and Gauguin to Kandinsky's Murnau and the Russian avant-garde.

Visit

The Permanent Collection entry includes the Carmen Thyssen rooms: Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum tickets

Location

Level 0, in rooms marked with letters rather than numbers. Paseo del Prado, 8, 28014 Madrid

Visit duration

The museum's own estimate for a full visit is about two and a half hours. Plan your visit

Key fact

Lease signed: 9 February 2022, for 15 years, covering 330 works

Baroness Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza's collection is the second collection inside the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum, hung on the ground floor in rooms lettered rather than numbered. Every work is labelled Carmen Thyssen Collection. The rooms run from Impressionism and Gauguin to Kandinsky, Münter and the Russian avant-garde. One painter you will meet there, Gabriele Münter, has a second work upstairs in the main collection.

Carmen Thyssen Collection: key facts

A transfer contract was first signed on 15 February 2002, and the works joined the museum on loan in 2004.

For years the loan was extended every few months, until an agreement was reached on 29 January 2021.

The lease signed on 9 February 2022 runs for 15 years, at 6.5 million euros a year.

It covers 330 works, valued in the contract at just over 1.7 billion euros.

The owners may sell up to three works during the lease, but never Gauguin's Mata Mua.

The museum must keep as many works on display as its rooms allow.

In the museum's catalogue, her works carry inventory numbers beginning with CTB.

How a private collection stayed in Madrid

Villahermosa Palace, home of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

The Spanish State bought the collection of Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza in 1993. Baroness Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza had built a collection of her own, and in 2002 she agreed to lend it to the museum. The paintings went on show in 2004, but the arrangement stayed provisional, a loan renewed again and again for nine years. Gauguin's Mata Mua left Spain in 2019 under an export licence. The 2021 agreement brought it back, and the 2022 lease set the terms: 15 years, 330 works, a right of first refusal for the museum's foundation if any work is offered for sale, and exclusive rights to reproduce the images.

A collection built around landscape

Old master paintings in a gallery of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

Guillermo Solana, the museum's artistic director, has described landscape as the common thread of the collection. You can follow it from Corot, whose Solitude. Recollection of Vigen, Limousin (1866) appears in his 2022 video tour, through the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists to Kandinsky's views of Murnau. The ground floor reads roughly in date order, from 19th-century Impressionism in Room D to the early avant-gardes in Rooms H and J. The same level also hosts the museum's temporary exhibitions, so the hang can shift when a large show opens. Check the room plan at the entrance before you set off, and give the lettered rooms their own stretch of time rather than treating them as an afterthought.

Four works to find in the Carmen Thyssen rooms

Terracotta-walled galleries at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

Berthe Morisot, Reclining Nude Shepherdess

Painted in 1891 at Mézy-sur-Seine, where Morisot rented a house with her husband, Eugène Manet, and their daughter, Julie. The model was a local girl, Gabrièlle Dufous. The museum calls it her most ambitious nude, and its outdoor setting recalls Corot, her teacher. Room D, Level 0.

Impressionist painting on display at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

Paul Gauguin, Head of a Young Girl

Not a painting but a stoneware vessel shaped as a girl's head, made in 1893 to 1894 after his first stay in Tahiti, when he went back to Ernest Chaplet's ceramics studio. Its forms draw on pre-Columbian Peruvian pottery and Oceanic skulls, and a dog and a mouse sit in the coils of the hair. Room F, Level 0.

A gallery room inside the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

Wassily Kandinsky, Murnau: Houses in the Obermarkt

A view of Murnau's main street from 1908, probably painted outdoors in one session. A Munich newspaper of that year was found wrapped around the canvas. It hangs in Room G with Gabriele Münter's School House, Murnau, from the same summer.

Villahermosa Palace, home of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

Natalia Goncharova, Fishing

Painted in 1909, when Goncharova was drawing on Russian peasant art, icons and folk traditions. Look at the flat forms and bold colour, and the simplified perspective. It is one of the works named in the 2022 lease. Room H, Level 0.

4.8
(28)

Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum Tickets: Permanent Collection

Highlights

Explore an extraordinary assortment of artworks spanning multiple centuries.

Wander through thematic floors featuring pieces from medieval times to modern avant-garde.

Enjoy the chance to visit anytime within a year with flexible ticket validity.

Admire pieces from prominent artists, including unique works representing different art movements.

Benefit from free entry for visitors under 18 and complimentary admission on Mondays during midday hours.

4.7
(21)

Prado, Reina Sofia and Thyssen: Paseo del Arte Season Tickets

Highlights

Avoid lengthy queues with express access.

Visit three top museums located close to each other.

Save up to 20% compared to individual ticket purchases.

Experience some of the world’s finest art collections.

Flexible entry times and dates for your convenience.

See the Carmen Thyssen rooms

Entry to the permanent collection covers the Carmen Thyssen rooms too, so there is nothing extra to book. Head down to the ground floor after the Old Masters upstairs, or start there if time is short: Impressionism, Gauguin, Murnau and the Russian avant-garde sit within a few rooms of each other.

Carmen Thyssen Collection: frequently asked questions

What is the Carmen Thyssen Collection?

It is the private collection of Baroness Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, shown inside the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid. Since 2022 the museum has leased it for 15 years.

Where is the Carmen Thyssen Collection in the museum?

On Level 0, the ground floor, in rooms identified by letters. Room D holds Impressionism, Room F Gauguin and Post-Impressionism, and Rooms G, H and J the early 20th-century avant-gardes.

Is the Carmen Thyssen Collection included in a standard visit?

Yes. The Permanent Collection entry includes admission to the Carmen Thyssen Collection.

How many works are in the Carmen Thyssen Collection?

The 2022 lease covers 330 works. The museum must show as many of them as its rooms allow, so the number on display at any time is lower.

Which famous paintings are in the Carmen Thyssen Collection?

The lease names, among others, Gauguin's Mata Mua, Van Gogh's Watermill at Gennep, Monet's The House among the Roses, Goncharova's Fishing and Kandinsky's Murnau: Houses in the Obermarkt.

Will the Carmen Thyssen Collection stay in Madrid?

The lease runs for 15 years from February 2022. During that time the museum's foundation has a right of first refusal if any work is offered for sale.

About this guide

Written by the Tourism Tickets Editorial Team.

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