Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza

The Thyssen-Bornemisza is the third point of Madrid's Golden Triangle of Art and, for many visitors, the most enjoyable of the three. It was built around one of the great private collections of the twentieth century, assembled by two generations of the Thyssen-Bornemisza industrial family and acquired by the Spanish state in 1993, after Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, encouraged by his Spanish wife Carmen Cervera, chose Madrid over rival bids. The paintings hang in the Palacio de Villahermosa, an elegant palace across the Paseo del Prado from the Prado itself, with salmon-pink walls and generous natural light. What makes the Thyssen special is its range. Where the Prado stops around 1900 and is strongest in Spanish, Italian and Flemish art, the Thyssen covers almost the whole story of Western painting in a single, logical route: you start at the top with early Italian and Flemish panels, move through the Renaissance — Ghirlandaio's luminous portrait of Giovanna Tornabuoni, Carpaccio, Holbein's Henry VIII, Dürer — to Caravaggio, Rembrandt and the Dutch Golden Age, then descend through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists (Monet, Degas, Van Gogh, Cézanne, Gauguin), the German Expressionists, the Cubists and the American painters, ending with Edward Hopper, Rothko, Lichtenstein and Pop. The collection of Carmen Cervera, shown in its own rooms, adds landscapes and nineteenth-century and Impressionist work. Because the route is chronological and the rooms are rarely crowded, it is the ideal museum for a first introduction to art history, and a joy for those who already know it.

The route is the key to enjoying it. Take the lift to the second floor and work your way down: second floor for the Middle Ages to the seventeenth century, first floor for the Dutch, the eighteenth century, Romanticism, Impressionism and Expressionism, and ground floor for the twentieth century, from Cubism and the avant-garde to Pop Art. The rooms are human-scaled, the hang is clear, and you can see the whole thing properly in two to three hours. Temporary exhibitions in the basement wing are consistently strong and often include loans from major international museums; they are ticketed in combination with the collection.

Visiting well: the Thyssen is open daily, with the permanent collection free on Monday afternoons for a few hours, when the rest of the week's crowds are absent; other days it opens through the morning and into the evening. Because it is less famous than the Prado, it is rarely overwhelming, though temporary blockbusters can sell out at weekends. Tickets are timed, and the Paseo del Arte pass includes it. The café and restaurant are pleasant, and in summer a garden terrace sometimes opens for evening dining. Audio guides are good, and the free museum app adds commentary on the highlights.

If you are short on time and must choose between the Prado and the Thyssen, choose the Prado for Velázquez and Goya — but if you have time for two museums, the Thyssen is the perfect complement, filling in the Impressionists and the modern masters that the Prado lacks. It also suits families better than the Prado: the rooms are smaller, the pictures more varied, and the route has a satisfying start and finish. Afterwards, you are steps from the Neptune fountain, the Barrio de las Letras and the Retiro, and a short walk from the rooftop terrace of the Círculo de Bellas Artes for a view over the Gran Vía.