Collector bequeaths works by major Flemish artists to Valencia Museum of Fine Arts

German-born collector Hans Rudolf Gerstenmaier, who passed away last Jan. 30, has donated his collection of Flemish paintings to the Museum of Fine Arts in Valencia in his will. It consists of a total of forty-one works, including paintings and engravings, by important artists, including Rubens.

Works such as the splendid Cumberland Madonna by Pieter Paul Rubens himself and theAdoration of the Shepherds by Maarten de Vos, but also paintings and engravings by Antoon van Dyck, Jan Brueghel the Elder, Brueghel the Younger, Gaspar Peeter Verbruggen.

Pablo González Tornel, director of the Valencian museum office, expressed surprise at the news: "I didn’t know anything. When the will was opened this week, I was informed that a month earlier it had been amended to leave the majority of his collection, among the largest in Spain of Flemish painting, to the museum. The Madonna by Rubens is marvelous, the still lifes as well as theAdoration of Shepherds by De Vos are stupendous. The Museum of Fine Arts could never have thought of buying that Rubens, because we would not have had enough budget."

The director also plans to dedicate a room in the museum to the collector to showcase the donated Baroque legacy of Flemish painting and thus pay tribute to Gerstenmaier.

The German collector settled in Spain in the 1960s; two years ago he had donated 11 paintings to the Prado, including works by Joaquín Sorolla.

Pictured is a detail of the Cumberland Madonna by Pieter Paul Rubens.

Collector bequeaths works by major Flemish artists to Valencia Museum of Fine Arts

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