This article is part of FT Globetrotter’s guide to Frankfurt
Frankfurt’s Städel Museum sits majestically on the Museumsufer, the banks along the river Main that plays host to numerous museums and art venues. With its astonishing permanent collection of European art spanning seven centuries, the Städel is Germany’s oldest museum foundation, established in 1815 from the collection of merchant and banker Johann Friedrich Städel. Works from the Middle Ages to the present day are spread across four floors, with pieces by world-renowned artists including Botticelli, Vermeer, Degas, Matisse, Bacon, Chagall, Richter and Warhol. For researchers and art enthusiasts across the globe, you can view the works in the digital collection. Yet nothing surpasses seeing the art in real life. It is an impossible choice, but here is my pick of 10 works from my recent visit. Check before you go whether paintings are still on display, or whether they have moved — permanent collections do revolve, and works are sometimes away on loan.
1. ‘The Violinist by the Window’ (1861) by Otto Scholderer
This romantic painting is considered one of German painter Otto Scholderer’s most famous works. Scholderer was part of a large group of German artists who began flocking to Paris in the mid 19th century, when the city was envisioned as the heart of European modernity. This work, created after Scholderer began spending time in the French capital, shows a young man perched on the sill of an open window gazing out into the world beneath his somewhat austere room. We catch him in the middle of music practice, grasping the neck of his violin in his left hand while the other end rests on his upper thigh. The room appears sparsely furnished with a simple wooden chair and chest of drawers. The painting has a monochrome palette of whites, creams, browns and black. It is calming to look at but makes one wonder if the young man realises that the richness and colour of life are to be found out in the wider world. I was drawn into the work by the air of longing and wistfulness that seems to fill the canvas. Haven’t we all had a moment like this by a window, our minds miles away from wherever we happened to be at that time? 1st Upper Level, Modern Art, Room 5
2. ‘Elderly Farmer and Young Girl’ (1876–77) by Wilhelm Leibl
It was the eyes that first drew me into this painting by German realist Wilhelm Leibl. Well known for his portraits and paintings of peasant life, this work shows a couple sitting close together on a bench, staring directly out from the canvas at the viewer. The old man has a leering grin, his right hand cocked on his lap and the left arm draped across the back of the bench as if claiming the young woman. The woman holds a glass half filled with a brown beverage. She tilts it as though ready to let its contents spill from the glass. I love the complexity of the seemingly simple painting. One can’t tell exactly what the situation is or how exactly the girl feels about it. Her left hand grips the arm of the bench in a way that could suggest tension in her body or fear. But her eyes stare at us as if daring us to say something. There are many of Leibl’s paintings that depict figures with powerfully expressive eyes. 1st Upper Level, Modern Art, Room 5
3. ‘The Baptism of Christ’ (1601) by Giovanni Battista Crespi (‘Il Cerano’)
Upstairs with the Old Masters is this impressive work by Giovanni Battista Crespi (also known as “Il Cerano”). At 209cm x 265.7cm, it is large enough to feel like you could walk into the river in the painting, where a naked and lean-bodied Christ bends his broad shoulders to receive the small stream of water on his head poured by an equally young and strong John the Baptist. Positioned so prominently, they almost seem to be stepping out of the frame, and the water of the river Jordan is so clear that you can see Jesus’s left foot balancing on a rock beneath the surface.
With the blue sky peeking out in the background between white clouds and the attending angels dressed in pastel tunics and standing on the rocks, it is a beautiful baroque work. But what I most love is the cheeky, almost impatient stance of the angel in the light-blue and sand-coloured tunic, rolling its eyes upwards either at us or up towards John the Baptist, with one hand on its waist and the other held open palm upwards as if to say, “What’s taking so long?” It is an unexpected, charming and almost comical humanising element to a painting about this significant event in Jesus’s life, when he was publicly baptised and was said in the gospel narrative to have heard the voice of God claiming him as a son. 2nd Upper Level, Old Masters, Room 11
4. ‘The Angel of the Annunciation’ (1482) by Carlo Crivelli
I love this small, detailed 15th-century painting, one of two panels about the Annunciation that were originally part of a larger four-part altarpiece painted for a church in Camerino, Italy. The second panel displayed here is The Virgin Annunciate. The other panels are housed at the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan and Abegg Foundation in Riggesberg, Switzerland. I love the focus on the fierce look of the Angel Gabriel, shown here kneeling with one hand raised in the sign of blessing, and the way he appears dreadfully serious about his mission. He is clothed in draping majestic garments that are still flowing in the wind of his own arrival, wings still outstretched behind as though he has literally just swooped down from the heavens. The details of the sharp, gold-tipped layered wings make the angel even more awe-inspiring and a little dangerous. I love how alongside all the divine drama here, there is a cloth hanging off the windowsill just above Gabriel. It adds the smallest element to remind us that this holy visitation was to a household in the midst of its daily activities. 2nd Upper Level, Old Masters, Room 13
5. ‘Madonna and Child with the Infant St John’ (1490-1500) by Sandro Botticelli
There are surely few biblical scenes that have been painted or sculpted more times than that of the Madonna and Child. I am particularly moved by this Italian master’s rendition. From the left side of the image, a young John the Baptist draped with a red cloak and with long red hair looks on with clasped hands of adoration as an infant Jesus reaches his little arms towards the neck of Mary his mother. Her lips are about to graze his face as he gazes up at her with the longing eyes of a child deeply attached to his mother. His face reveals both his dependence on Mary and that slight fear of being separated from her. In the background, through a window we see a cross, symbolic of his future death. It is a beautiful painting alive with bright colours and Botticelli’s delicate mastery, but what compelled me was the infant Christ reaching eagerly for his mother in such a tender manner. 2nd Upper Level, Old Masters, Room 13
6. ‘The Geographer’ (1669) by Johannes Vermeer
It would be offensive not to include a Vermeer, especially as this is the only painting by him in the museum’s permanent collection. (Its other Vermeer is a drawing housed in the Prints and Drawing Department, and must be requested to view.) The painted light in this small canvas really does stop you in your tracks. Vermeer’s work is always replete with layers of symbolism and telling details that speak to the historical moment. This painting is no different.
During a time of exploration and discovery about the world, people needed maps. This young scholar is lost in his work — perhaps helping to create those maps. He has stopped midway and seems lost in thought while holding a compass. It is as if we have peaked through the slant of a doorway to catch him taking a moment to think while all the glorious Vermeer light spills into the room and across his open books and the folds of the blue tapestry that separates us from him.
While the age of exploration and trade in the Netherlands and wider Europe was the world that inspired such work by Vermeer, life was simultaneously playing out quite differently for the people and communities in the parts of the globe to which these new maps led. 2nd Upper Level, Old Masters, Room 7
7. ‘Two Women by a Sink; The Sisters’ (1913) by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
As soon as I walked into one of the Modern Art rooms, I was drawn to this vibrant painting of two women wearing pink and green long dresses with dramatic flaring white collars by the German expressionist painter and printmaker Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, a founding member of the early-20th-century Die Brücke group. The women are Erna and Gerda Schilling, who were nightclub dancers and models. For a few years after moving to Berlin in 1911, Kirchner painted works depicting the chaotic, busy and often decadent city life of dancers, cabarets and street scenes. His works of this era are recognisable by their sharp forms and bright and at times garish colours. Erna, the model in the green dress with her hands in the sink, was Kirchner’s partner, who later played a significant role caring for him and for his works after he had a mental breakdown. The painting of the sisters holds court in the museum as part of a much larger collection of 323 works by Kirchner. 1st Upper Level, Modern Art, Room 1
8. ‘Orang-Utan “Seemann” with his Keeper” (c1901) by Max Slevogt
In the Modern Art rooms, I also saw this turn-of-the-century oil painting by German impressionist artist Max Slevogt. The orang-utan, painted an almost glowing golden brown with orange highlights, holds court on his keeper’s lap. His large, jawed mouth is wizened into a slight grin, and dark eyes look intently at the viewer. His keeper gazes with seeming affection at Seemann. A warmth seems to emanate from the 120-plus-year-old canvas. If one looks for long, it is easy to be reminded of the evolutionary relationship between us and Seemann. From this lovely portrait, one gets the sense this was an animal loved and cared for. It was touching to see a portrait of an animal and to consider again the ways we can so easily bond with other creatures. Currently on loan
9. ‘Marianne before a Mirror’ (1929–30) by Karl Hubbuch
The painting is deliciously provocative. A topless woman stands with her back against a mirror. Her head is titled back in pure delight as she grins widely about something we know nothing about. Her eyes are shut in pleasure. But in the mirror, they appear open as she looks on at someone. It is a seemingly private moment, but we as viewers aren’t intruders because we are not even given the luxury of being noticed. This is a woman completely caught in her own moment of unabashed pleasure. It is interesting to note that in the years after Hubbuch unveiled this painting, he lost his job as professor at the Karlsruche Art Academy for the supposed “degeneracy” of his art and his anti-Nazi stance. 1st Upper Level, Modern Art, Room 14
10. ‘Samson and Delilah’ (1902) by Max Liebermann
Berlin-born Max Liebermann helped to shift the art landscape in the German capital in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This large-scale (151.2cm x 212cm) painting presents the two biblical figures as naked lovers on white bedsheets. Delilah sits up and victoriously raises Samson’s chopped locks of black hair into the air with her outstretched right hand. We can just make out the partial body of someone whose forearm enters the frame from the left edge of the canvas — perhaps a person to collect the locks. With her other hand she almost tenderly touches the remaining hair on the collapsed and defeated Samson’s head as he lies powerless across her lower body. It’s a striking portrayal of the power of Delilah’s seduction and how Samson’s desire led to him losing his supernatural strength. I loved the scale of the work — it refuses to be passed by. Critics read it as Liebermann’s portrayal of a battle of the sexes. Whether that was his intent or not, I was struck by how strongly one feels the reversal of power. The painting was hung just behind a life-sized sculpture of the biblical character Eve, created by Auguste Rodin in 1881. Not currently on display
Have you been to the Städel Museum, and if so, what were your favourite artworks there? Tell us in the comments below. And follow FT Globetrotter on Instagram at @FTGlobetrotter
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