European Masters: Audioguide

Against a tradition of Neo-Classicism, artists began to record their observations of nature. German painters Caspar David Friedrich and Johann Christian Dahl sought to evoke ethereal elements such as clouds or light.

Narrator William McInnes provides an historical overview of Frankfurt and Germany in the 1800s, a period in which Johann Frederick Städel began building what would become a significant personal art collection.

Courbet was part of the French Realist movement, who shunned the subjects of classical imagery to instead paint contemporary life.

Monet was the leader of the French Impressionists, a group who dragged their easels outside to paint en plein air to capture the changeable nature of light and colour.

Although a member of the group, Degas’s painting style contrasted with the predominant French Impressionist style. He was a classical painter and draftsman who depicted modern life.

In 1874 Impressionists Monet, Renoir, Pissarro and Sisley mounted a series of exhibitions in defiance of the powerful Paris Salon.

Narrator William McInnes provides an historical overview of Frankfurt and Germany in the 1800s, a period in which Johann Frederick Städel began building what would become a significant personal art collection.

French artist Jean-Baptist Corot was a leading member of the Barbizon School, a group that championed Realism and whose plein air studies of nature anticipated the work of the Impressionists.

Les Nabis experimented with bold colouring and abstraction, taking inspiration from Paul Gauguin. They included Paul Sérusier, Maurice Denis, Pierre Bonnard, Aristide Maillol and Edouard Vuillard.

The ‘Leibl Circle’ was an important group of German Realist artists. An introduction to members Wilhelm Leibl and Wilhelm Trübner, and key figures in Naturalism: Wilhelm Altheim and Fritz von Uhde.