Hamburger Kunsthalle
5 December 2025 to 29 March 2026
ART AROUND 1800 revisits the legendary exhibition cycle of that name at the Hamburger Kunsthalle. That series, presented in nine parts from 1974 to 1981, examines the impact of art in the »Age of Revolutions«, launching seminal debates on the social relevance of art that continue to resonate today. The current show critiques the historical displays created under then director Werner Hofmann from a contemporary perspective, updating their approach to classifying and ordering things. Over 50 paintings, books and works on paper dating to the era around 1800 from the Kunsthalle's collection are supplemented by 70 selected loans and works by five contemporary artists. Around 100 artists are represented.
Like the original series, the current exhibition is being shown in the rotonda on the upper floor of the new museum wing inaugurated in 1919. In the 1970s, this area served as a central »space for contemplation« and for curatorial experiments. Arranged in ten stations, ART AROUND 1800 unfolds a panoramic survey of an epoch, looking at themes such as the Enlightenment, violence, dreams, the political landscape and industrialization as well as revolution and notions of freedom – from today's point of view. The historical exhibition series revised European art-historical narratives by focusing on themes and artists that broke with the conventions of their time: Ossian, Caspar David Friedrich, Johann Heinrich Füssli, William Blake, Johan Tobias Sergel, William Turner, Philipp Otto Runge, John Flaxman and Francisco Goya. ART AROUND 1800 now highlights aspects that were lacking or which received little attention in the 1970s exhibition cycle: feminism, women artists, the Jewish Enlightenment, slavery, abolitionism and the Haitian Revolution.
The publication Art around 1800. Curating as a scientific practice. The Hamburger Kunsthalle in the 1970s (Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2024, hardcover, in German, 440 pages, 395 illustrations) accompanies the exhibition. Edited and with essays by guest curators Petra Lange-Berndt and Dietmar Rübel as well as David Bindman, Johannes Grave, Charlotte Klonk, Jenny Nachtigall, Richard Taws and Monika Wagner, among others, the volume documents all the exhibitions in the original series ART AROUND 1800. The authors take a critical look at the decade after 1968 and offer new perspectives on that era of experimentation. The catalog is available at a bookstore price of 48 euros at the museum shop or at www.freunde-der-kunsthalle.de .
Participating artists : Giacomo Aliprandi, Saul Ascher, Inigo Barlow, Robert Bénard, Benedict Heinrich Bendix, Pierre-Gabriel Berthault, William Blake, Louis-Simon Boizot, Henry Winsor Bond, François Bonne-ville, Edward Francis Burney, Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki, Jacques-Simon Chéreau, John Heaviside Clark, Jacques-Louis Copia, George & Isaac Cruikshank, Louis Darcis, Erasmus Darwin, Jacques-Louis David, François Séraphin Delpech, Charles Melchior Descourtis, Auguste Desperet, Claude-Louis Desray, Mark Dion, Richard Earlom, Edmund Evans, Charles Fernique, John Flaxman, Maria Flaxman, Caspar David Friedrich, Johann Heinrich Füssli, Henry Gastineau, Jean Baptiste Gautier, François Gérard, James Gillray, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Francisco Goya, Anton Graff, William Hackwood, Isidore-Stanislas Helman, Thomas Higham, William Hogarth, Thomas Holloway, Jean-Pierre-Marie Jazet, Angelika Kauffmann, Carl Wilhelm Kolbe, Samuel Lacey, Philibert-Benoît de La Rue, Moses Samuel Loewe, Philip James de Loutherbourg, Joseph Wilson Lowry, Thomas Lupton, William Lutwyche, James Macpherson, John Martin, Johann Wilhelm Meil, Moses Mendelssohn, Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, Scipio Moorhead, Jean-Michel Moreau, James Nasmyth, Friedrich Perthes, George Pickering, William Pickett, Tommaso Piroli, Sigmar Polke, Jean-Louis Prieur, Marcus Rainsford, Thomas Rowlandson, William Read, Jean-Baptiste Regnault, Philipp Otto Runge, Auguste Sandoz, Piat Joseph Sauvage, Frédéric-Jean Schall, Marten Schech, Johann David Schubert, Johan Tobias Sergel, Thomas Spence, John Gabriel Stedman, Jean-Joseph François & Jean Pierre Antoine Tassaert, Albert Teichel, Suzanne Treister, Joseph Mallord William Turner, John Walker, Kara Walker, Josiah Wedgwood, Moses Wessely, Phillis Wheatley, Loeser Leo Wolf, Joseph Wright of Derby and Johann Zoffany.Tsade
Auguste Desperet (1804–1865) Dritter Ausbruch des Vulkans von 1789, 1833
Lithographie, 260 × 330 mm Privatsammlung, Hamburg© Foto: Petra Dwenger
Thomas Rowlandson (1757–1827) Procession to the Hustings after a Successful Canvass, 1784 Radierung, 260 × 355 mm Privatsammlung, Hamburg © Foto: Petra Dwenger
Anonym Ein Schnellverfahren des französi- schen Volkes, um einen Aristokraten von seinem Hab und Gut zu befreien, um 1790 Radierung, 170 × 120 mm Hamburger Kunsthalle, Kupferstich- kabinett © Hamburger Kunsthalle / bpk Foto: Christoph Irrgang
Maria Flaxman (1768–1833) Traum: Eine Feengestalt, 1803 Kupferstich: William Blake
in: William Hayley: The Triumphs of Temper. A Poem ..., London, 12. Auflage, 1803 Privatsammlung, Hamburg © Foto: Petra Dwenger
Angelika Kauffmann (1741–1807) Jugendliches Selbstbildnis als Zeichnerin, um 1770
Feder in Braun, braun und grau laviert, 190 x 161 mm Hamburger Kunsthalle, Kupferstich- kabinett © Hamburger Kunsthalle / bpk Foto: Christoph Irrgang
François Gérard (1770–1837) Ossian am Ufer der Lora beschwört die Geister beim Klang der Harfe, um 1810 Öl auf Leinwand, 211 × 221 cm Hamburger Kunsthalle
© Hamburger Kunsthalle / bpk Foto: Elke WalfordD
Johann Heinrich Füssli (1741– 1825) Der Gerächte, ca. 1806
Öl auf Leinwand, 92 x 72 cm Hamburger Kunsthalle, Dauerleih- gabe der Stiftung Hamburger Kunst- sammlungen © SHK / Hamburger Kunsthalle / bpk Foto: Elke Walford
Jean-Baptiste Regnault (1754– 1829) Freiheit oder Tod, ca. 1794
Öl auf Leinwand, 60 x 49 cm Hamburger Kunsthalle © Hamburger Kunsthalle / bpk Foto: Elke Walford
Daniel Chodowiecki (1726–1801) Göttin der Toleranz, ca. 1791
Öl auf Leinwand, 75 x 60 cm Deutsches Hugenotten-Museum, Bad Karlshafen © Foto: Fred Dott
