The Artists’ Association Apelles in Weimar
The Kunstmuseum Schwaan cordially invites visitors to the exhibition “The Artists’ Association Apelles in Weimar,” on view from 24 January to 19 April 2026. At its center is a now largely forgotten yet art-historically significant group of artists founded in 1895 at the Prellerhaus in Weimar. Its members included numerous painters closely connected to the Schwaan artists’ colony, among them Franz Bunke, Rudolf Bartels, Paul Drewing, Paul Tübbeke, and Otto Tarnogrocki. At a time of artistic upheaval, the artists joined forces to pursue new paths beyond an increasingly conservative understanding of art. Their works vividly illustrate the diversity and development of landscape painting between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Complementing the main exhibition is the exhibition section “Brendel’s Barbizon. Historical Photographs and Early Landscape Painting”, also on view from 24 January to 19 April 2026. It focuses on the use of early photography in teaching at the Weimar School of Art and shows how imagery from the Barbizon School was employed to convey artistic ideas. Together, the two presentations offer a multifaceted perspective on the artistic movements that had a lasting impact on the development of modern landscape painting.
