Landscapes in Light.

Von Gleichen-Rußwurm, one of the founders of the Weimar Painting School, began painting summertime gardens and idyllic agrarian landscapes around 1889.

Ludwig von Gleichen-Rußwurm is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of modern painting in Germany. Around 1900 the influential art critic Julius Meier-Graefe described him as the first artist to introduce French Impressionism to the German art world.

Gleichen-Rußwurm produced evocative portraits of 19^th-century European landscapes depicting countryfolk living in harmony with nature. The paintings are remarkable for their distinctive interpretation by one who traversed boundaries and artistic genres, a member of the old aristocracy and grandson of Friedrich Schiller, one who moved between eras and cultures. But as an artist, he clearly embraced modern trends and was greatly admired by the influential museum directors of his time. Shortly before his death in 1901, Paul Cassirer staged an extensive and highly acclaimed retrospective of Gleichen-Rußwurm’s works at his Berlin gallery. Yet as Impressionism spread throughout Germany in the following years, Gleichen-Rußwurm and his artistic impact faded from public memory.

In cooperation with the Würzburg Museum im Kulturspeicher and the DLA Marbach which have preserved a large portion of his artistic estate, the Klassik Stiftung Weimar presents some of his most important pieces, comprising a representative overview of the artist’s development for the first time. Against the backdrop of a contemporary reassessment of German Impressionism, the exhibition rediscovers the artistic achievements of this outstanding painter, illustrator and graphic printer and presents them from various perspectives.

After its presentation in Weimar, the exhibition will be shown at the museum in the Kulturspeicher Würzburg from 4 February to 15 May 2022.