Exhibition "Unadulterated—Robert Sterl in Bohemian Switzerland"

Twenty years ago, the Malerweg in Saxony was revived – its historic route once led via Hřensko (Herrnskretschen) to Bohemian Switzerland. The special exhibition ‘Unadulterated – Robert Sterl in Bohemian Switzerland’ takes this anniversary as an opportunity to follow in the footsteps of Robert Sterl (1867–1932) through that landscape.

In the early 1890s, the young Dresden artist Robert Sterl spent several weeks in Janov (then Johnsdorf), near Hřensko, together with his friend Wilhelm Claudius (1854–1942), and produced impressive plein air drawings. In his quest for an unadulterated view of people and nature, Sterl turned away from the academic ideal and the oppressive scenes of urban poverty. Instead of spectacular rocky landscapes, he captured gardens, farmhouses and, above all, children in their everyday rural lives. Influenced by the impressions from his trip to France and by French Impressionism, he developed here a visual approach that shaped his subsequent artistic development. Drawings, supplemented by oil paintings, sketches and letters, provide an insight into this creative phase. At the same time, they shed light on the friendship between the two illustrators and Impressionists, Robert Sterl and Wilhelm Claudius.