This exhibition of around 100 selected works from the period 1450 – 1800 centres around the time of Albrecht Dürer, with drawings by the master himself shown alongside those of his contemporaries Ludwig Schongauer, Hans Holbein the Elder, Hans Burgkmair the Elder and Albrecht Altdorfer. The 17th century is represented by figurative drawings by Adam Elsheimer and Johann Liss, while in the 18th century landscape drawings by artists such as Jakob Philipp Hackert and Adrian Zingg dominate, as well as bourgeois genre scenes by the likes of Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki.
The exhibition is the result of nearly four years of extensive scholarly research, made possible with the support of the Ebelin and Gerd Bucerius ZEIT Foundation. The works selected for the exhibition represent only a small part of the total collection of around 1500 sheets of German Old Master drawings in the internationally renowned Department of Prints, Drawings and Photography. The complete illustrated catalogue of German drawings before 1800 in our collection will be published in mid-2006.