Fellows in red jackets
›Nothing kitsch about him; a well-informed European. Some of his fellows in red jackets belong in a picture gallery‹, wrote Paul Klee appreciatively in 1908, when he visited the memorial exhibition in Munich in honour of Wilhelm Busch (1832–1908). Here the famous creator of humorous picture stories could be discovered as a painter for the first time – with striking portraits, atmospheric genre scenes and animated landscapes, in which peasants in red jackets often attract the eye.
Busch’s painterly side is still little known – and no wonder, as the artist, who was plagued by self-doubt, kept his mostly small-format paintings hidden from view during his lifetime. So a visual cosmos that was particularly close to Busch’s heart remained on the periphery, even for connoisseurs. Yet his miniatures deserve much recognition: their often impetuous, sketchy brushwork unites a love of 17th-century Dutch painting, 19th-century traditions and 20th-century love of experimentation.
With around seventy loans from the Museum Wilhelm Busch in Hanover, and supplementary works from private collections, the exhibition Matter of the Heart offers a comprehensive view of the world of the painter Wilhelm Busch.
In cooperation with the Museum Wilhelm Busch –
The German Museum for Caricature & the Art of Drawing, Hanover
