Anton Graff was the most important portraitist of the German Enlightenment and stood out with his individual portrayal of each person.

Pastel painter Jean-Étienne Liotard was one of the most sought-after portraitists in Europe in the 18th century.

At the beginning of the 20th century Hodler developed into one of the few great independent landscape artists in Europe. For more than a decade he occupied himself with motifs from the mountain and lake landscape of Switzerland.

View into Infinity resulted from a comissioned work for the stairwell of the Kunsthaus Zürich, which took years to complete.

At the beginning of the 20th-century Paris wasn’t only the city of leading painters but also the city of great sculptors. Rodin, Maillol, Medardo Rosso.

The German painter Max Beckmann spent the Second World War in exile in Amsterdam. When the first ship set sail again he emigrated to the USA.

Shaped by new knowledge of the mountains, which now were being explored and researched, with his unique view of the powerful natural setting, Caspar Wolf set a landmark in European landscape painting.

With his Biedermeier view through the window upon the industrial motif, Menzel characterises the industrial era as a revolution and a threat.

With its almost completely abandoned spatial depth and its flat strictness, chalk cliffs on Rügen is one of Friedrich’s most radical compositions. At the same time, it belongs to the most colourful and most festive paintings of this deeply melancholic painter.

Jacob van Ruisdael was one of the most innovative European landscape painters. He belonged to the first painters who regarded the landscape as a mirror of life and transience.