picturesque!
Villas and Artists on Lake Starnberg

September 19th 2021 until March 6th 2022

Historical villas and country houses still characterize the area surrounding Lake Starnberg to this day. The summer retreats built in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries created a unique setting where the aristocracy, the middle classes, and the artistic community came together. The social life of this period constitutes a special chapter in cultural history. The exhibition takes a closer look at some of these villas by means of paintings and drawings by the artists associated with them, including Lovis Corinth, Herrmann Ebers, Franz von Lenbach, Gabriel von Max, Marie von Miller, Paul Thiem, and Wilhelm Trübner.

Some of the works are artistically significant, while others are valuable contemporary documents. All of them are directly related to the houses and their inhabitants, and many of them have never been publicly displayed before.

Taking pride of place in the exhibition is Wilhelm Trübner’s painting In the Park of Villa Knorr, which has been acquired for the museum’s collection with the support of the Lake Starnberg Museum Friends Association.

The exhibition is based on the book Longing for Lake Starnberg – Villas and Portraits of their Famous Residents by art historian Katja Sebald, and has been compiled together with the author.