The House Museum of Paul and Fanny Sinebrychoff (permanent hanging)

Rembrandt: A Reading Monk. 1661. Oil on canvas. 82 x 66. Donation 1920-7-8, A II 1410. Hjalmar Linder Collection / Sinebrychoff Art Museum / Finnish National Gallery. photo: Yehia Eweis. The photo fails to convey the impact of the painting. Please click to enlarge to see something.

The House Museum of Paul and Fanny Sinebrychoff. Bulevardi 40, 00120 Helsinki. Visited on 27 Dec 2017.

Official introduction: "The collections of the Sinebrychoff Art Museum include some of the most valuable and internationally important paintings by old European masters to be found in Finland. The collections have mainly been made up of donations. The unique house museum of Paul and Fanny Sinebrychoff, a permanent exhibition on the 2nd floor makes up the core of the museum. The art collection of the Sinebrychoffs, including furniture and other artefacts was left to the Finnish government as a bequest in 1921."

AA: There is room for meditation at the Sinebrychoff Museum, based on the first high quality private collection of old European masters in Finland. It grew into the biggest private art collection in the Nordic countries.

Paul Sinebrychoff (1859–1917) was the owner and CEO of the successful brewery carrying the family name. He and his wife Fanny Sinebrychoff (1862–1921) were devoted to art, and as they had no heirs, they bequathed their beautiful house and collections to the nation. Substantial donations have been added to the collection afterwards.

In the second floor the Sinebrychoff home milieu has been preserved intact with the original furniture, art collection, and miniature cabinet. The same floor is the exhibition space for the museum collection of old European masters. There is an atmosphere of peace and quiet in the middle of noisy Helsinki.

Johan Tobias Sergel: Amor och Psyke. 1789. Marble. 76 cm. Purchase October 1930, B I 372. Sinebrychoff Art Museum / Finnish National Gallery. Photo: Henri Tuomi & Hannu Pakarinen.

There are oil paintings, etchings, sculptures, plates, and miniatures. Some paintings have interesting provenances including the Rembrandt painting above whose luminous darkness the photograph fails to convey. Johan Tobias Sergel was a Swedish sculptor whose name is still prominent in Stockholm (Sergelgatan, Sergelhuset, Sergel-Teatern, Sergels torg). His sensual Amor and Psyche was intended for Madame du Barry, but in the year 1789 the French Revolution took place, and other homes were found for the sculpture inspired by the mythical figures familiar from Apuleius's novel Metamorphoses (The Golden Ass).

The study of Paul Sinebrychoff.

The view from the Sinebrychoff Park.