Wild at Heart: Romanticism in Switzerland


The Eiger at Sunrise (1844), Alexandre Calame

While some museums are closed again due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Apollo’s usual weekly pick of exhibitions will include shows at institutions that remain open as well as digital projects providing virtual access to art and culture.

For Lord Byron, Switzerland was ‘the most Romantic region in the world’; throughout the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the country became a place of pilgrimage for poets and painters from all over Europe, seeking to experience for themselves the vertiginous awe inspired by its mountains and the pristine beauty of its lakes. This display of around 150 works includes Swiss scenes by painters such as Caspar David Friedrich, Eugène Delacroix and J.M.W. Turner – while also exploring how Swiss artists themselves reacted to the advent of European Romanticism (until 14 February 2021). Find out more from the Kunsthaus Zürich’s website.

Preview below | View Apollo’s Art Diary here

Ploughed Field (c. 1830), Caspar David Friedrich. Hamburger Kunsthalle

Ploughed Field (c. 1830), Caspar David Friedrich.

Fir Trees (1849), Arnold Böcklin. Kunstmuseum Basel

Fir Trees (1849), Arnold Böcklin.

Loneliness at Dusk (1794–96), Henry Fuseli. Kunsthaus Zürich

Loneliness at Dusk (1794–96), Henry Fuseli

The Eiger at Sunrise (1844), Alexandre Calame. Deposito della Confederazione svizzera, Ufficio federale della cultura, Gottfried Keller-Stiftung

The Eiger at Sunrise (1844), Alexandre Calame