In the big world. From Waldmüller to Schindler

The Leopold Museum presents a large-scale exhibition of paintings by German artists of the Biedermeier period. “In the big world. From Waldmüller to Schindler. In the 19th century, the aesthetic framework of the landscape was extremely wide. In romanticism, open spaces served as either a dark background or a mysterious place for reflection and sadness. At the same time, in the Biedermeier era, nature was a scene flooded with light to depict rural life. The picturesque episodes of Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller and Friedrich Gauermann fascinate with their hyper-realistic chiaroscuro, which makes the landscape a separate hero of their paintings.

Since 1860, the younger generation, whose central figure was the “Austrian Koro” Emil Jacob Schindler, has taken a different path. Using muted colors, these artists paid homage to landscapes saturated with lyrical mood. Supporters of Austrian atmospheric realism (they are also often called “atmospheric impressionists”) came up with individual, sometimes quite peculiar solutions. They paid tribute to untouched nature in the era of industrialization and focused viewers on the poetry of everyday life.

The exhibition focuses on Tina Blau, who was able to establish herself in a male-dominated profession and worked as a drawing teacher. The exhibition presents about 90 works.