Gemäldegalerie digitises glass negatives of Old Masters lost in WWII fire
The Gemäldegalerie in Berlin has completed digitising its high-resolution glass-negative archive of hundreds of paintings destroyed in a 1945 fire, including works by Caravaggio, Peter Paul Rubens, Paolo Veronese, and Anthony van Dyck. The negatives, made primarily by photographer Gustav Schwarz from 1925 to 1944, survived in good condition. The digitisation project, led by deputy director Katja Kleinert, involved re-photographing each negative with a high-resolution camera in the museum's photo archive room. The images will be published in the online collections database later this year, allowing global access and zooming. The museum plans to digitise negatives for other losses, totalling roughly 585 objects. The project aids provenance research and preserves fragile plates.
Key facts
- Works by Caravaggio, Rubens, Veronese, and van Dyck were destroyed in a fire in May 1945 at the Friedrichshain flak tower.
- The Gemäldegalerie digitised its glass-negative archive of around 430 large-format works lost in the fire.
- Most negatives were made by Gustav Schwarz (1871-1958), who began working for Berlin museums in 1906.
- The systematic photography campaign began in 1925 and continued until 1944.
- Digitisation was done by re-photographing negatives with a high-resolution camera, not scanning.
- The images will be published in the Gemäldegalerie's online collections database later this year.
- Colour photographs were not digitised due to complexity.
- The museum plans to digitise negatives for other losses, including old loans and confiscated works, totalling roughly 585 objects.
Entities
Artists
- Caravaggio
- Peter Paul Rubens
- Paolo Veronese
- Anthony van Dyck
- Gustav Schwarz
Institutions
- Gemäldegalerie
- Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum
- Kulturforum
Locations
- Berlin
- Friedrichshain
- Museum Island
- Potsdamer Platz