The story
Bernhard August von Lindenau began his career measuring the sky. He ran the Seeberg observatory near Gotha, and a crater on the Moon carries his name. Later he served as a leading minister of the Kingdom of Saxony, and back in his home town of Altenburg he bought Italian panel paintings of the 13th to the early 16th century.
He opened his collection to the public in 1848, together with a school where young people could learn by drawing from the works themselves. The present gallery building opened in 1876, after his death. Its core is still those Italian panels, around 180 of them, from Siena, Florence and Umbria, one of the most important groups of early Italian painting outside Italy. Among them are Sandro Botticelli's portrait of a young woman shown with the attributes of Saint Catherine, and a small predella scene by Fra Angelico, the Florentine friar-painter, of Saint Francis before the Sultan of Egypt. Around them are plaster casts of ancient sculpture, Greek vases and a large holding of 20th-century prints, including the work of Gerhard Altenbourg, the East German artist who took his name from the town.
The main building has been closed since 2020 for a full renovation, with reopening planned for 2029. Until then a compact selection is shown at Kunstgasse 1 in the town centre, and the art school Lindenau founded still runs its courses.
