Die plastischen Meisterwerke der Königlichen Museen zu Dresden. B: Rietschel-Museum

On closer inspection, it turns out to be a photographic documentation of the collection in the form of a concertina fold, a type of photo album typical of the late 19th century. Albumen paper prints are mounted on approx. A5-sized white cardboard. The individual sheets are joined together with a tissue fold and can be flipped open. An index in the inner flaps of the book provides information about the motifs depicted. The white cardboard is discoloured due to its age, and some of the tissue folds have been completely lost.

This publication was issued by "Hermann Krone Photogr. Kunstverlag Dresden" presumably between 1877 and 1879. The photographic documentations of the holdings of today's Sculpture Collection of the Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden, formerly separate museums of the Antiken- und Abguss-Sammlung (Museum of Antiquities and Castings Collection) and the Rietschel Museum, produced between 1871 and 1896, form one of the largest groups of works in the complete oeuvre of Hermann Krone (1827-1916). Early on, Krone pursued an encyclopaedic approach to photography. The six-volume edition of the "Plastische Meisterwerke der Königlichen Museen zu Dresden. B: Rietschel-Museum", which was published in three successive editions, indicates a great public interest in this type of photography and impressively demonstrates the photographer's intention. On 28 August 1876, the archaeologist and head of the casts’ collection Hermann Hettner approved Krone's request to be allowed to photograph the collection of the Rietschel Museum. Photographs were taken in 1877 and 1878 in the Rietschel Museum in the Palais im Großen Garten.

Thanks to the efforts of friends and colleagues of the sculptor Ernst Rietschel (1804-1861) to preserve his artistic estate in its entirety, the "Committee for the Foundation of the Rietschel Museum" was founded shortly after his death in February 1861. The primary goal was to find a permanent home. However, it was not until 1869 that the approximately 200 exhibits of original plaster and clay sculptures, casts, models and studies in plaster would be presented on the upper floor of the Palais im Großen Garten. The museum's existence was short-lived. In 1889, Georg Treu (1843-1921), the director of the sculpture collection, redesigned the holdings and transferred them to the sculpture collection established in the Albertinum. Unfortunately, installation views from the four exhibition halls of the Rietschel Museum have not survived. Only Krones' photographic documentation provides a comprehensive insight into the collection at that time.

Since 2017, the library of the Academy of Fine Arts has digitised many items of its historical book collection. Among them is this publication, which can be accessed remotely via our online library catalogue as well as via the Sachsen.digital portal.