In addition to his collection of contemporary painting, Ludwig I, who established the Neue Pinakothek, also purchased sculptures by important sculptors like Antonio Canova and Bertel Thorvaldsen. They were supplemented with many busts by sculptors such as Christian Daniel Rauch and Friedrich Tieck, which were originally intended for the Walhalla or the Ruhmeshalle (Pantheon). The king also had Johann Halbig create portraits of numerous poets and painters from whom he had already acquired paintings. All of these sculptures from the collection of Ludwig I have now been assessed from a scholarly perspective for the first time. The first volume of the three-volume catalog on the collection of all the sculpture holdings of the nineteenth century at the Neue Pinakothek presents the works in new color photographs and sheds light on the context of their creation.
