Out into the countryside
In the footsteps of the Schwalenberg artists’ colony

Visitors to a new exhibition at the Municipal Gallery will once again be able to follow in the footsteps of the historic artists’ colony in the painters’ town of Schwalenberg.

Artists have always possessed a particular way of perceiving their surroundings. Towards the end of the nineteenth century and into the early twentieth, an increasing number of artists left their studios in search of motifs in the open landscape. This development was part of the broader plein air movement – painting outdoors in natural light – which originated in France in the nineteenth century and gave rise to around 180 artists’ colonies across Europe, all shaped by the influence of Impressionism.

Nestled within an idyllic landscape and characterised by winding lanes and picturesque half-timbered houses, Schwalenberg offered an abundance of inspiring motifs. The exhibition presents a selection of works as well as recent acquisitions from the gallery’s own collection, spanning landscape and genre painting associated with Schwalenberg.

Fig. 08: Robert Kämmerer the Elder (1870–1950): The Mörth near Schwalenberg in Autumn, oil on hardboard, 1925 © Photo: U. Heinemann

Fig. (09): Hans Licht (1876–1935), Valley in the south-east of the Lippe region, oil on hardboard, undated, 75 × 86 cm, © Photo: U. Heinemann.