Throughout last century, different groups of artists across Europe were experimenting with bold ideas and forms. Max Ernst was a Dadaist and Surrealist, and Paul Klee part of the Bauhaus movement.

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.

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.

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.