The Hamburg artist Friedrich Wasmann was one of the great discoveries, along with Caspar David Friedrich and Philipp Otto Runge, which Alfred Lichtwark made on the occasion of the Berlin Jahrhundertausstellung in 1906. The Hamburger Kunsthalle owns more than 1,000 works by this early plein-air artist who, having trained in Dresden and Munich and spent several years in Rom, settled in Meran in 1839. Wasmann produced a considerable oeuvre in which not only the portraits and genre scenes, but above all his plein air-landscape studies in oil and pencil represent a milestone in art history. What is more, his popular autobiography is one of the most interesting depictions of artistic life in the 19th century. The exhibition, which was shown in a slightly different form in summer 2006 in Schloss Tirol near Meran and was accompanied by an extensive catalogue, will present about 40 paintings and oil studies and about 50 drawings both from the Kunsthalle and from other museums – the first representative cross-section of Wasmann's oeuvre.

Curator of the exhibition: Dr. Andreas Stolzenburg

The exhibition is supported by

Friedrich Wasmann (1805-1886)
Blick in die Campagna, 1833
Photo: Christoph Irrgang

Friedrich Wasmann (1805-1886)
Ein Eselskarren, um 1837

Friedrich Wasmann (1805-1886)
Meran im Schnee, um 1840

Friedrich Wasmann (1805-1886)
Der Blumengarten des Ottmannsgutes in Meran, um 1840

Friedrich Wasmann (1805-1886)
Minna Wasmann, die Schwester des Künstlers, 1822

© Photos: Elke Walford