Oldenbourg, Rudolf

Date born: 1887

Place Born: Munich, Germany

Date died: 1921

Place died: Badenweiler, Germany

Museum curator and historian of 17^th century Flemish painting. Oldenbourg was the son of the eminent Munich book publisher Rudolf, Ritter von Oldenbourg (1845-1913).  The younger Oldenbourg studied in Vienna and Halle, and wrote a dissertation on painter Thomas de Keyser under the direction of Adolph Goldschmidt (q.v.) in 1911. After receiving his degree, he became an assistant at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, which led to a position as a curator of paintings in the Kaiser-Friedrich Museum in Berlin. While working at the Kaiser-Friedrich, Oldenbourg wrote several essays on Rubens and the influence of Italian art on his paintings. Among them was a pioneering survey of 17th-century Flemish painting, Die Flämische Malerei des XVII. A revised edition of Oldenbourg's writings on Rubens was published posthumously in the series Klassiker der Kunst, completed by Ludwig Burchard (q.v.). LMW

Home Country: Germany

Sources: The Dictionary of Art

Bibliography:  [dissertation:] Thomas de Keyser's Tätigkeit als Maler; ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des holländischen Porträts. Leipzig:  Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1911;  Peter Paul Rubens: Sammlung der von Rudolf Oldenbourg veröffentlichten oder zur Veröffentlichung vorbereiteten Abhandlung über den Meister. Wilhelm von Bode, ed.  Munich: R. Oldenbourg, 1922;  and Uhde-Bernays, Hermann.  Die Münchner Malerei im neunzehnten Jahrhundert.  Munich:  F. Bruckmann, 1922;  Die Flämische Malerei des XVII. Jahrhunderts.  Berlin:  G. Reimer, 1918.