Landscape paintings in the collection of Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza

The Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid houses one of the finest private art collections.

It was begun in 1920 by the Baron von Thyssen-Bornemisza and continued by his son, the present Baron.

The museum was opened in 1992 after being bought by the Spanish state.

In March 2004 it will house for the first time the international works of the Baroness von Thyssen-Bornemisza, a remarkable collection of works by the greatest artists from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries.

This collection contains fine examples of works hardly present in the Spanish public galleries, such as seventeenth-century Dutch painting and eighteenth-century artists such as Canaletto, Fragonard and Guardi.

The heart of the collection is its nineteenth-century art, from Caspar David Friedrich and John Constable to the Impressionists and painters such as Corot and Daubigny.

The holdings of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings are perhaps the richest and most striking.

Gauguin is particularly well represented and there are fine examples by Degas, van Gogh, Monet, Pissaro, Renoir and Sisley. Also well represented are the avant-gardes from the beginning of this century, especially Fauvism (Braque, Derain, Matisse, etc.) and German Expressionism.

An initial selection of the Baroness' collection was presented to the public for the first time at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid in 1996 to critical and public acclaim.

Since then different selections have been shown in places as varied as Beijing, Bilbao, Lugano, New York, Rome, Tokyo and Zaragoza, giving people from all over the world the chance to know and enjoy this remarkable collection.

This beautifully produced and informative book will bring the collection to an even wider audience.