1 April > 17 July 2011

ENGLISH 1 April > 17 July 2011 CURATED BY FELIX KRÄMER 100 MASTERPIECES FROM THE STÄDEL MUSEUM OF FRANKFURT IMPRESSIONISM, EXPRESSIONISM, AVANT-GARDE “The appeal of the Städel Institute lies in the vast artistic energy it manages to concentrate within a confined space. Here there is almost all that has been generated by the great spiritual movements of Europe and all in the finest works of art.” These are the words with which Hamburg’s Kunsthalle director, Alfred Lichtwark, voiced his enthusiasm for the collection of the Städel Museum – which comprises masterpieces from the early 14th century to the present - after a visit in 1905. Goethe himself made frequent mention of the banker Städel in his letters, underlining how, notwithstanding his advanced age, he would insist on personally receiving visitors and accompanying them through his great collection, which at the time was composed largely of 17th and 18th century Flemish and German painting. In his will Städel bequeathed his enormous fortune, his art collection and his magnificent residence to the public by constituting a foundation that was a complete novelty for the time. In line with the tradition of bourgeois patronage and still influenced by Illuminism, Städel voiced his intentions in his will as being to offer “the finest for local citizens”. The Städel Museum was thus born from the initiative of a single individual intent on promoting art by offering public access to his 3 collection and library, as well as through the creation of hitherto enjoyed the contribution of so many Jewish an affiliated art school. In Germany such actions had intellectuals of the Frankfurter bourgeoisie, temporarily hitherto been the prerogative of the aristocracy and the lost its great prestige. The confiscated works that were Church. The Städel Museum, on the other hand, was of interest to the international market were sold off founded neither through noble patronage nor through at ridiculously low prices, while others were simply public or ecclesiastical commissions but through the destroyed. Among the dispersed works were paintings spirit of civic engagement of a private citizen. The by German artists such as Max Beckmann, Ernst Ludwig success of this original formula is still visible today, in Kirchner and Franz Marc, as well as key works by Pablo the museum itself but even more so in the art library Picasso, Marc Chagall, Edvard Munch, Henri Matisse, and the Städel School, which ranks as one of Germany’s Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh. Deprived of all most influential art academies. its major contemporary artworks, the Städel ceased to A dark chapter in the history of the museum does exist, be a the museum of modern art it had been since its however. With the rise to power of the Nazis in 1933, the beginning and the dream of a museum geared towards collection of modern art was first confined to storage the art of the future appeared shattered forever. then largely confiscated four years later as “degenerate Reconstruction in the post-War years was particularly art”. The regime seized a total of 77 paintings and difficult. On the one hand there was the need to fill, 575 drawings, graphic works and sculptures. Some where possible, the gaps in the collection left by were included in the infamous Degenerate Art tribunal the Nazis, while on the other it was inconceivable to exhibition organised in 1937 in Munich, which toured overlook the present. Between 1948 and 1966 the the country for the three following years. Although the museum managed to recover at least six of the works authorities attempted to remove Swarzenski from his that had been confiscated, including paintings of great position as director on account of his Jewish origins and importance such as Franz Marc’s Dog Lying in the Snow. because he was a champion of modern art, the board Further acquisitions of modern art included Picasso’s of the Städel managed to keep him in place until 1937 Portrait of Fernande Olivier, motivated as a kind of thanks to the founder’s stipulation that the institution ‘reminiscence’ of the famous Portrait of Dr Gachet by should remain utterly free and independent of the city Van Gogh, which had been confiscated in 1937. administration. Swarzenski emigrated to the United In line with the modernist curatorial vocation of the States where he continued his career at the Museum Palazzo delle Esposizioni, the exhibition will concentrate of Fine Arts in Boston. The Museum-Vereit, which had on the 19th and early 20th century portion of the Städel 4 5 collection. Through a succession of major masterpieces supreme spiritual concentration. Their art is notable for and articulated over seven stylistic and chronological its traits inspired by the Renaissance masters and for its sections, the show will illustrate the mounting clash and frequent use of figures from Christian symbology. reciprocal contamination of artistic styles, currents and In the same gallery works by Friedrich, Dahl, Lessing movements that determined the progress of European and Delacroix document the various channels taken art history from Neoclassicism to the early Avant-garde. by the figurative culture during Romanticism, from the ethereal poetic expressions of the northern Sublime to the tempestuous moods of the exotic south. ROOM 1 CLASSICISM AND ROMANTICISM Carl Blechen (1798 Cottbus – 1840 Berlin) In 1822 resigned from his position in a bank and The show opens with a panorama of early 19th century attended his first drawing classes at the Berlin German Classicism, introduced by the famous portrait Akademie. In 1823 visited Dresden and the surrounding of Goethe reclining with the Roman campagna in the area and met Johan Christian Dahl and Caspar David background. Completed in 1787 by Tischbein, this Friedrich. Worked as a theatre painter and ornamental portrait has come to epitomise the myth of the Italian painter in Berlin. First travelled to Italy at the end Grand Tour. A broad selection of German artists active in of 1828. Upon his return, exhibited works and was Italy in the early 19th century (Pforr, Fohr, Blechen, Koch) appointed professor of landscape painting at the Berlin is intended to convey an idea of the cultural context at Akademie. In 1835 travelled to Paris. In addition to the time of the founding of the Städel Museum, whose visionary pictorial worlds, also painted nature, faithfully direction was entrusted in 1830 to the Nazarene painter reproducing his observations of light and colour. Philipp Veit. Nazarenes” was the name given to a group of young Johan Chr. Dahl (1788 Bergen – 1857 Dresden) German painters who broke with their country’s Attended the academy in Copenhagen from 1811 on, academic tradition and in 1809 left for Rome in search studied Dutch landscape painters, travelled through of inspiration from nature (the Classical landscape) Germany, Switzerland and Italy. In 1818 settled in and in order to return to ancient sources (Renaissance Dresden, where he became friends with Caspar David painting). Having taken up residence in the Franciscan Friedrich, living in the same building. In 1824 became Monastery of Sant’Isidoro, the group embraced a life of a professor at the academy. His works based on ROOM 1 6 7 plein-air studies made a considerable contribution to the Nazarene circle around Friedrich Overbeck and Peter Romanticist landscape painting in Europe. They include Cornelius. Painted works of literary fantasy and made numerous seascapes, moonrises, mountain scenes drawings of the young German painters in Rome at the and cloud paintings, drawn primarily from the dramatic Caffe Greco. Was considered a great Romanticist talent. scenery of Norway, which he introduced to the German public. Caspar David Friedrich (1774 Greifswald – 1840 Dresden) Initial instruction in drawing in Greifswald; from 1794 Eugène Delacroix (1798 Charenton-Saint-Maurice – 1863 Paris) to 1798 study of art at the academy in Copenhagen, Trained from 1815 in the studio of the painter Pierre moved to Dresden. In 1808 a landscape painted to Narcisse Guerin. There made the acquaintance of serve as an altarpiece triggered a dispute among critics. Theodore Gericault and others. Within the framework of Contact with painters, writers and philosophers, among his training, copied works by Rubens and Veronese in them Philipp Otto Runge and Goethe. From 1824 the Louvre. Made a name for himself in 1822 with his assistant professor at the Dresden Akademie. Extensive painting The barque of Dante; beginning in 1826 state travels – to the Baltic Sea and Rugen, the Harz, Ore and commissions for wall and ceiling paintings. Travelled Krkonosˇe mountains, Bohemia and Saxony – which to Morocco in 1832, gathering impressions there that had a formative influence on the development of his would accompany him for the rest of his life. In 1838 artistic style. stayed in Holland and Belgium to study the painting of those countries, which had a lasting influence on the Joseph Anton Koch (1768 Obergilben – 1839 Rome) pathos as well as the colouration of his works. Studied at the Carlsschule in Stuttgart from 1785 to 1791; from 1795 lived in Rome, where he developed a Carl Philipp Fohr (1795 Heidelberg – 1818 Rome) close friendship and artistic exchange with Jakob Asmus Instruction in drawing with Friedrich Rottmann in Carstens and Johann Christian Reinhart. Lived in Vienna Heidelberg; from 1810 onward in Darmstadt, in from 1812 to 1815 and thereafter once again in Rome, 1815/16 at the Akademie in Munich and member of where he was at the hub of the German-Roman artistic the Romanticist circle in Heidelberg. Travelled the Alps community. Participated in the painting of the Casino with his dog, Grimsel; from the late autumn of 1816 Massimo from 1825 to 1828. lived in Rome. There worked in the studio of landscape painter Josef Anton Koch and came into contact with ROOM 1 8 9 Carl Friedrich Lessing (1808 Breslau – 1880 Karlsruhe) landscape painting via the English painter George From 1822 until 1826 studied at the Berlin Augustus Wallis.

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