Up to now, no acquisitions of original works of plastic art have been made. Our small holdings are the result of incidental donations. If our art gallery is to fulfill its educational responsibility, it must take vigorous action in this area. It cannot be our intention to collect sculptures on the same scale as paintings. From time to time, however, we must attempt to purchase a particularly magnificent bronze, an accomplished work of marble, which we will display not alongside the plaster casts, but up in the picture gallery in a spot of architectonic significance. Over the long term, a city like Hamburg would do itself a dishonor by declaring itself too poor to incorporate sculpture into its collections as well. The educational value of some modern marble and bronze sculptures of the first order is virtually inestimable. One single ornamented column to which a great master applied the full extent of his talents can convey a standard to the entire population. For this very reason, however, acquiring only the very best works is just as important here as it is in painting.
The collection of plastic works is followed by the coin collection [Münz-Cabinet]. Here, we have to strive for completeness in the section pertaining to Hamburg. For ancient coins and medallions, for those from the Renaissance and the Baroque periods, our approach is to work towards a standard presentation of the very best examples ever created. Wherever our funds preclude the purchase of superb originals, we have to direct our attention to electroform reproductions, with virtually original pieces, especially in this particular section.
Moving on, the next point is augmenting the holdings of the Kupferstich-Cabinet. We intend to expand it gradually beyond its current scope and turn it into an extensive department for graphic art. – In the same manner as before, we will continue to collect works from older epochs up to the end of the 18th century, taking as our motto: Only the best of everything! Completeness will be the aim only with regard to, say, the works of Dürer, Schongauer, and Rembrandt.
As far as the accomplishments of our own century are concerned, we have an entirely different obligation. Our aspiration must be to supplement our modern gallery by collecting anything that can lay claim to artistic value in the area of printmaking technique. Mere reproductions or items created expressly as wall decorations would be generally excluded here.
Nevertheless, our field remains rich enough. What immense treasures can be found in the German wood engraving of the past era alone! I would like to remind you of the life’s work of Ludwig Richter, of the unforgettable creations by Rethel, Führich, and Schnoor, of Menzel’s illustrations. To have a nearly complete collection of all this and to make it available to the public at any time is the obligation of any engravings department associated with a modern gallery. Unfortunately, etching was cultivated to a lesser extent in our parts, but we have to be able to feature the humoristic prints of Schrödter and Neureuther as well as the work of Menzel and his successors. The holdings of the English gallery place a particular obligation on us. In England, as you know, the heyday of painting in this century was followed by a very sophisticated and peculiar development in wood engraving and etching. The English wood-engraving technique has become the model for production in all of Europe, occupying the same role held by the fundamentally different German wood-engraving technique in the sixteenth century. Ownership of the most important examples of illustrated artists’ books produced in England, and of the most important illustrated newspapers that have appeared since this form developed – they, too, have been a model for the entire civilized world – would allow us to make a necessary addition to our English section.
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