Albertinum: Dreams of Freedom. Romanticism in Russia and Germany

Maxim Worobjow, Vom Blitz gespaltene Eiche (Unwetter), 1842

Dreams of Freedom

Romanticism in Russia and Germany

“Dreams of Freedom. Romanticism in Russia and Germany” is the first exhibition to present masterpieces from Russia and Germany together, in direct relationship to one another and from a pan-European perspective. It opens up a dialogue between Romanticist art from the two countries of a kind that has never before been attempted.

Exhibition Site Tretjakow-Galerie, Moskau

DATES 22/04/2021—08/08/2021

Opening Hours

daily 10—18, Monday closed

The presentation takes its roots in the Crisis of the Subject at the start of the 19th century and the struggle for freedom that accompanied it. The liberalist ideas of the French Revolution swept through Europe just as Napoleon Bonaparte cast the continent under the shadow of war. The conservative governments in Russia and the German states attempted to restrict civil rights. The artists of the Romantic period responded to this time of upheaval with an artistic universe dominated by emotions and rife with revolutionary potential. Their dreams of freedom merged artistic individualism with utopian social ideologies. A new, groundbreaking understanding of art was born with a highly characteristic style discernible in its painting, composition and interpretation of classical stories from Antiquity and the Bible, as well as the most important genre of the era: landscape painting.

**Carl Gustav Carus, Brandung bei Rügen, 1819** Öl auf Leinwand, 645 x 935 mm

**Alexander Iwanow, Rechter Arm eines Mannes, 1. Hälfte 1840er-Jahre** Öl auf Papier auf Karton, 43 x 57 cm

**Caspar David Friedrich, Zwei Männer in Betrachtung des Mondes, 1819/20** Öl auf Leinwand, 33 x 44,5 cm

**Caspar David Friedrich, Böhmische Landschaft mit dem Milleschauer, 1808** Öl auf Leinwand, 70 x 104 cm

**Anton Iwanow-Goluboi, Die Insel Walaam bei Sonnenuntergang, 1845** Öl auf Leinwand, 61 × 91,3 cm

**Adrian Ludwig Richter, Die Überfahrt am Schreckenstein, 1837** Öl auf Leinwand, 116,5 x 156,5 cm

**Alexej Wenezianow, Bei der Ernte. Sommer, Mitte 1820er Jahre** Öl auf Leinwand, 60,6 × 49 cm

**Orest Kiprenski, Zeitungsleser in Neapel, 1831** Öl auf Leinwand, 64,5 × 78,3 cm

**Silvester Schtschedrin, Grotta di Matromania auf Capri, 1827** Öl auf Leinwand, 35,7 × 46,4 cm

The common thread running through the presentation is conflict between restriction and freedom, between native and adopted countries, between inward withdrawal and emergence into a new future. Far from the restrictive lifeworlds of northern Europe, Italy became a longed-for destination where it seemed possible to live freely among like-minded people.

The exhibition revolves around the paintings of the Romantic period, including outstanding masterpieces by Caspar David Friedrich, Alexey Gavrilovich Venetsianov, Carl Gustav Carus and Alexander Andreyevich Ivanov. It is based on the holdings at the State Tretyakov Gallery and the Albertinum and complemented by pieces from renowned institutions. The works are accompanied by selected objects related to the lives of the artists and other historical figures, such as Carl Maria von Weber’s baton or the boots Napoleon is believed to have worn during his Russian campaign in 1812.

The exhibition contains numerous links to the present day: This is reflected in selected international idioms of contemporary art, represented by Susan Philipsz, Mathilde ter Heijne, Marlene Dumas, Wolfgang Tillmans, Jaan Toomik, Andrey Kuzkin, Boris Mikhailov and Bill Viola, which are connected to the Romantic period in terms of both aesthetics and content and clearly demonstrate why Romanticism is seen as the beginnings of Modernism.

publication accompanying the exhibition