The Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection developed as a natural continuation of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, which has been housed since ]992 in the Museum of the same name in Madrid. Its beginnings could be dated around the middle of the 1980%, the period in which Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza was formalising an agreement with his children in order to prevent the future dispersion of the collection his own father had started in the first decades of the 20th century and that he himself had considerably enlarged. The main body of the historical collection was then commended to a trust that was to safeguard its future. In order to guarantee the task of that trust, he entered into negotiations with 9overnments and institutions in different countries including, in 1986, with the Spanish government. ...

Carmen Cervera was born in Barcelona and was brought up in a family of art lovers. His father, an industrial engineer and businessman from Barcelona, loved painting as a hobby and collected paintings by Catalan artists. She received an international education, attending different schools in Barcelona, England and Switzerland.

 At an early age she married the American actor Lex Barker. She lived in the United States, Italy, Switzerland and Spain until Mr. Barker's death, in 1973. At the end of the 197Os, Carmen Cervera met Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, an important businessman and art collector, whom she married in England in 1985.

 Baron and Baroness Thyssen-Bornemisza shared the wish that everybody could have access to the Collection.

 The Baroness' role in drawing up an agreement between the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection and the Kingdom of Spain--first to house it on loan at the Palacio de Villahermosa in Madrid and at the Pedralbes Monastery in Barcelona, and later for its final acquisition by Spain--has been acknowledged and admired. Besides being a historical event for Spain, this achievement has ensured that the Collection will remain undivided in the future, and that the public will be able to enjoy it in the best conditions. As a sign of recognition of her endeavours, she was awarded the Gran Cruz de Isabel la Cat61ica in 1988 and the Medalla de Oro de las Bellas Artes in ]999, which she received from His Majesty the King Juan Carlos I in Santiago de Compostela.

 That same year of 1999, the Baroness publicly expressed her wish to lend her private collection free of charge for a period of eleven years, so that it could be exhibited in the new rooms of the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid. The signing of an agreement between the Baroness and the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport set in motion the project to extend the Muse- um, which has concluded with its opening in the spring of 2004.

Preface Carmen Thyssen Bornemisza

Rrief notice of the Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Tomas Llorens

Contents

CARMEN THYSSEN-BORNEMISZA COLLECTION

1

FRENCH IMPRESSIONISM

2

GAUGUIN, PONT-AVEN PAINTING AND THE NAB/S

3

PAUL SIGNAC AND PAINTING IN FRANCE, BELGIUM AND SPAIN

AROUND 1900

4

RODIN

5

BRITISH AND AMERICAN PAINTING AROUND 1900

6

20TH CENTURY PAINTING IN FRANCE, BELGIUM, SPAIN AND ITALY

7

20TH CENTURY PAINTING IN GERMANY, AUSTRIA

AND EASTERN EUROPE

8

20TH CENTURY AMERICAN AND BRITISH PAINTING

Biographies

Exhibitions

Bibliography

Index