The Stadel presents “Carl Schuch and France”

From 24 September 2025 to 1 February 2026, the Städel Museum presents the exhibition “Carl Schuch and France”

Source: Städel Museum · Image: Carl Schuch, The Rhododendron Basket, 1885/86

“Leibl is revered, Trübner is highly esteemed, but Schuch is loved.” The Städel Museum is devoting an exhibition to Carl Schuch (1846–1903), the best-known “unknown” protagonist of late 19th -century painting. During his lifetime, he was hardly noticed by the public, but shortly after his death Schuch’s work received great attention from critics, museums and collectors, only to be forgotten again. The Städel Museum traces the fascination of Schuch’s painting and shows his multifaceted engagement with modern French art.

Carl Schuch was a cosmopolitan: educated in Vienna, he travelled throughout Europe before settling in Paris in 1882, where he experienced the most productive phase of his artistic career. Schuch transformed his sensory impressions into pure painting, characterized by subtle tonal gradations and sonorous colour harmonies. In the summer, he devoted himself to plein air painting. In the studio, however, still life became his main field of experimentation. He used a fixed repertoire of motifs in ever new combinations to test different colour effects. He was interested in complementary contrasts and the way colours changed with light and shadow, as well as in colour mixtures and new colourants. Schuch repeatedly applied the extraordinary painting technique he had developed for still lifes to his landscapes.

The Städel Museum is showing Schuch’s paintings alongside major works of French art from leading museums and private collections. Schuch intensively studied the paintings of his role models, including German contemporaries such as Wilhelm Trübner and Wilhelm Leibl, and above all his French contemporaries Paul Cézanne, Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet, Edouard Manet and Claude Monet. By juxtaposing his works with theirs, Schuch’s autonomous painting style becomes clear. The latest art-technological research provides insights into the genesis of his paintings. The free use of colour and Schuch’s unmistakable handwriting make his painting a rewarding discovery.