When driving into downtown, crossing over the Main River on the Max Bridge, you can’t help but notice an impressive, modern building that somehow fits perfectly into its historical environment of the Old Town. Since 2000, this has been the home of the Museum Georg Schäfer, the worldwide most significant, private collection of 19th century art from the German-speaking realm. The collection belonged to the Schweinfurt business magnate Georg Schäfer (1896 – 1975) and was donated to a foundation by his heirs. The museum houses paintings and drawings from the end of the 18th to the beginning of the 20th century and shows the wealth of art influences of that time period: From the late Rococo, to Classicism, and the Romantic period, all the way to Impressionism.
The quality of the collection lies in the importance of the pieces and the significance of the art from lesser known artists. The Museum Georg Schäfer is right on up there with the collection of English art at the Tate Britain in London, or the collection of German art at the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin, and the Neue Pinakothek in Munich.
One characteristic of the collection is that it includes large parts of the artists’ overall production, thus showing the development in style for each artist. The museum houses the largest collection of art by Carl Spitzweg in the world: 160 paintings and 110 drawings. The museum also owns 100 paintings, gouache paintings and drawings by Adolph Menzel. On display are numerous works by Caspar David Friedrich, Georg Ferdinand Waldmüller, Hans Thoma, Wilhelm Leibl and his circle, as well as Max Liebermann and Max Slevogt.
Photos: Peter Leutsch (Interior Pictures)
