Bernhard Schnackenburg passed away on July 17 2024 at the age of 85.
Bernhard Schnackenburg was born in Bremen in 1938 and, after graduating from high
school, initially studied law and then switched to art history after taking state exams and
working as a court trainee. In 1971 he received his doctorate under Wolfgang Braunfels in
Munich with a thesis on the drawings of the brothers Adriaen and Isaack van Ostade, which
was published expanded as a two-volume monograph in 1981. From 1974 to 1979 he
worked at the Kunsthalle Bremen, where he curated many exhibitions before taking over the
management of the Neue Galerie in Kassel in 1979. From 1983 to 2003 he was the director
of the Old Masters Picture Gallery in Kassel. Here he not only accompanied the extensive
renovation work at Schloss Wilhelmshöhe, but was also able to present a two-volume
catalogue of the Gemäldegalerie in 1996, which presented the entire inventory for the first
time and is still fundamental today.
Despite these various activities, publications on Dutch painting and drawing in the 17th
century form the focus of his work. In 2016 he published his last major book, the monograph
about Jan Lievens. The engagement with the work of Jan Lievens went back to the
preparation of the exhibition “The Young Rembrandt. Puzzles about his beginnings", which
was shown in cooperation with the Rembrandthuis and the Rembrandt Research Project in
Kassel and Amsterdam in 2001/2002 and presented a new look at Rembrandt’s beginnings.
It was the most successful exhibition to date at Schloss Wilhelmshöhe. He has achieved
great things for Hessen Kassel Heritage, especially the Old Masters Picture Gallery.
