This section contains an overview of the most relevant exhibitions. Each item is connected to the organizing museum.

Manet and Astruc


Edouard Manet (1832–1883) is one of the most famous artists of the 19th century. Zacharie Astruc (1833–1907), however, is almost unknown as an artist today. Initially he made a name for himself as an art critic: he was the first to publicly defend Manet’s works.

In the 1860s Manet painted him several times. With the Portrait of Zacharie Astruc of 1866, which is a part of the collection of the Kunsthalle Bremen, Manet created a programmatic statement on the taste of the avant-garde. Everything the two loved and discussed is contained in the painting – Japonism, Spanish fashion, the art of the Old Masters and music.

This exhibition is the latest chapter in a series of major exhibitions at the Kunsthalle Bremen on nineteenth-century French painters, such as Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, Gustave Caillebotte and, most recently, Emile Bernard.

 

 

The Emperor and the Sultan


The Badisches Landesmuseum is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its founding in 2019. The world-renowned Karlsruher Türkenbeute is at the heart of the museum’s exhibitions – an atrophy collection assembled by the Baden margraves from the 17th-century Turkish wars. It is more emblematic of Baden’s history than almost any other collection while also illuminating its European dimension.

The Grand State Exhibition addresses historical and cultural linkages in East-Central and Southeastern Europe for the first time. The region in the heart of Europe was the scene of war and ethnic unrest in the 17th century. Hungary, the Siebenburgen area, and the Balkan peninsula became transit and border areas in an era of tension between major powers.

This corridor developed into a gateway for knowledge transfer on the European continent, the likes of which had never been seen before. The exhibition focuses on new developments in civilisation, created in the shadow of power politics and religious conflict: Innovations in architecture, art and fashion, or the introduction of new technical processes.

The exhibition presents around 350 Ottoman or Ottoman-influenced pieces. For the first time, it combines collections from Karlsruhe with the significant Türckischen Cammer of the Dresden State Art Collections (Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden) on a large scale. In addition, the exhibition also presents objects on loan from Budapest, Krakow and Vienna, as well as Ptuj (Slovenia).

 

The Justin K. Thannhauser Collection


Photo/Foto: Hôtel de Caumont Art Centre

Hôtel de Caumont Art Centre presents masterpieces from the Justin K. Thannhauser Collection, which were bequeathed to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in New York in 1963.

Some fifty major works from this prestigious collection will be presented in Europe in a travelling exhibition that began at the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum: paintings and sculptures by the masters of Impressionism and post-Impressionism, but also by the most important figures in modern art, from Manet to Picasso, Degas, Gauguin, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Braque and Matisse.

The exhibition also offers the visitor the opportunity to reconstruct the history of the Thannhauser collection through photographs, inventory books and other archive documents that illustrate the relationships between the Thannhauser family and the avant-garde artists, collectors and dealers of the time.

The Oldest City Panorama


As of 24 March 2019, the Bastei presents the oldest Dutch city in a surprisingly new way. The ‘Nijmeegsch Rondgezicht’ Derk Anthony van de Wart (1767-1824) has been enlarged to 100 times its original size and offers a unique view of the 19th century landscape. The ‘Nijmeegsch Rondgezicht’ is the oldest city panorama of the Netherlands. Derk Anthony van de Wart captured this vista in 1806, from the Belvedère, just after the destruction of the Valkhof castle.  It shows the cramped fortified town amidst the grand and vast river landscape. It is for this exhibition that Kees Moerbeek has enlarged the original etchings and has complemented it with information in order to provide a clear picture of life in the beginning of the 19th century.