In three galleries 400 paintings of scenes from history and literature, landscapes and seascapes, genre scenes, still lifes and portraits are on display. The exhibition will demonstrate the high quality and diversity of the artists involved in the Düsseldorf School. The show will be highlighting several generations of immigrant students and comparing the School with other leading schools of painting across Europe and the USA . The international influence of Düsseldorf’s art of the previous centuries will be on display for the first time. Artists from across the world were drawn to the Rhine to study either at the Academy or privately. The native German artists were receptive to international influences and sometimes worked closely together with those who had chosen Düsseldorf as their new home. International economic and social changes were the foundation of the changes in demands made on both art and artists.The style of life and work, social interaction as well as aspects of marketing, the founding of clubs and societies and networking are all depicted in the pictures of the Düsseldorf School. The Düsseldorf School found its way towards Modernism at the end of the nineteenth Century. Düsseldorf’s new generation of painting students oriented itself towards the Hague School, but also increasingly towards French role models such as the Impressionists. In the “Sonderbund” society founded in 1909 by artists, collectors and curators, the modern movement in Düsseldorf found its most distinct expression. The society’s important exhibitions at the Düsseldorf Kunstpalast including contributions from the European avantgarde provided particular proof of this. The approximately 400 exhibits will not only comprise oil painting but also highlight the variety of the School’s graphic work, from preliminary sketches through to book illustrations.
