In 2024 the Museum Reinhart am Stadtgarten will close for several months due to renovation work. All paintings will be taken down during this period. While part of the collection will be stored, the Kunst Museum Winterthur is taking advantage of this opportunity to send some of the masterpieces of the Stiftung Oskar Reinhart on tour in order to bring visibility to the museum and ultimately also to Swiss art on the international stage. 

Low Land, New Heights, a presentation of the important collection of Dutch Baroque landscape paintings, will remain on view in the Kunst Museum Winterthur | Beim Stadthaus during this period. Holland was the stronghold of landscape painting in the seventeenth century. Artists created a veritable topography of their country that reflected the seasons and the elements, propagating their new awareness of their country and national identity. Jan van Goyen’s views of rivers and villages are just as representative as the picturesque dunes and forest landscapes by his contemporary Pieter de Molijn. The Dutch were also proud of their cosmopolitanism, which found its culmination in the seascapes by marine painter Willem van de Velde. The longing for faraway places was embodied by the southern ideal landscapes of the Dutch Italianates. Jacob van Ruisdael ultimately gave a spiritual dimension to landscape painting. His tree scenes and spectacular waterfalls, which the artist conceived as a mirror of human emotions, conclude the selection, which makes this important ensemble of Netherlandish art accessible in a new context.

Curator: Andrea Lutz