American Artists in Munich: Artistic Migration and Cultural Exchange Processes

Munich?s Academy of Fine Arts, founded in 1808, became one of the most important institutions In Europe for training artists in the second half of the 19th century. The Academy attracted students from across Europe, and the United States. This volume examines the ?Munich school,? its development and influence, the migration of its style and the effect art students have on their surroundings. Existing studies of American painters in Munich focus on leading representatives from the peak of the movement in the early 1870s and 1880s, when the realism of the returning artists' paintings caused something of a sensation in the American art world, up to the 1930?s. This complex phenomenon must be investigated in its entirety, taking into account the development of styles and genres over half a century, experienced by more than 420 American students, and also by a number of American artists who studied elsewhere in town.