To the sun! To freedom!

The 2026 summer exhibition at Reinhart am Stadtgarten is dedicated to a pivotal moment in the history of modern art: the emergence of plein air oil painting in the early 19th century. Under the title *Toward the Sun! Toward Freedom! the exhibition will trace various paths of painting in the open air. The aim is to present the heyday of plein air painting in Italy and, for the first time ever, to recount the specifically Swiss development of the genre.

On display are masterpieces by all the major artists in the field, including the founder Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes and Simon Denis, from early German representatives such as Martin von Rohden and Johann Georg von Dillis to masterpieces by Heinrich Reinhold, Ernst Fries, and Achille Etna Michallon. The exhibition culminates with the enchanting works of Carl Blechen and Camille Corot, thus spanning a magnificent arc from the sun of the South to the freedom of art. In parallel, the exhibition traces the development of this practice in Switzerland, where—as is little known—it had also been pursued since the late 18th century, notably by the pioneer of Alpine painting, Caspar Wolf. The subtle art of the oil study was one of Oskar Reinhart’s greatest collecting passions. As a result, the foundation now owns numerous excellent landscape studies in oil on paper, which impressively document both the path of the freedom movement in Swiss painting and the golden age of the genre in Italy. In addition, the exhibition is enriched by numerous studies from museum and private collections in France, Germany, and Switzerland.

With its focus on the highest quality and a fresh perspective on Switzerland, the exhibition differs significantly from the successful exhibitions of oil studies held in recent years in Paris, Cambridge, and Washington. Featuring over thirty previously unpublished works, it is also set to surprise the art world.

The exhibition is co-curated by David Schmidhauser and Florian Illies, a bestselling author and expert on early 19th-century German and French painting.

Curated by David Schmidhauser and Florian Illies