The painter’s colony in Kronberg was one of the earliest in Germany in the 19th century. About 60 artists painted here for several years. The artists reacted to increasing industrialisation and technical changes in the big city culture. Rustic Kronberg served as a projection of the unaltered ‘healthy and natural world’. Simple motives mixed with their personal experience of this reality. Guesthouse ‘Zum Adler’ served as accommodation and an artsy meeting place for the new residents.

Then, around 1900, wealthy Frankfurt citizens discovered the small town of Taunus as a health and holiday resort and built their summer villas there. Done with the romantic seclusion and rustic peace! As Kronberg rose in status, a society oriented artist group settled in town and joined the “Back to Nature” movement. Although these new artists did follow the lines of the simple motives, they mainly focused their art on portraiture and the historical painting of society’s events.