Citizens' Campus: New insights into the work of Friedrich Nerly and the collection of his works

For four years, two art historians and numerous restorers dedicated themselves to a major inventory research and conservation project on the oil studies and paintings of the painter Friedrich Nerly (* November 24, 1807 in Erfurt; † October 21, 1878 in Venice) of the Angermuseum Erfurt, which led to the founding of the Erfurt Municipal Museum in 1886 as a donation from his estate.

As a result, a large exhibition of around 200 works, many of which were presented to the public for the first time, showed how his artistic talent developed.

Due to his early oil studies, Nerly had long been regarded as a leading German open-air painter. But he also took on the role of a pioneer and trendsetter during his successful years in Venice: he knew how to stage himself imaginatively in the unique setting of the lagoon city, building on the innovative aesthetics he had developed in Rome and, as an early open-air painter, creating small paintings of great modernity by day and night. In his time, he was primarily perceived as a romantic painter.

The lecture will show why, in Nerly, we are now paying tribute to a painter who united both sides in his work - the plein-air painting method, which was only just emerging at the time, and the Romantic perspective.

Speaker: Prof. Dr. Kai Uwe Schierz | City Administration Erfurt

Admission: 5 Euro