Lovers of Impressionism are in just the right place at the Von der Heydt Museum in Wuppertal: the museum's collection goes back to donations from the Von der Heydt banking family, whose interest was primarily in 19th century painting, especially Impressionism. Shortly after its foundation in 1902, the first director Fries began to build up this section with donations from the family and other wealthy citizens.
The museum, which is now housed in the former Elberfeld town hall near the main railway station and is located at the entrance to the pedestrian zone, displays sections of its important collection in ever-changing contexts. It focuses on different aspects and thus offers new perspectives on works by Cézanne, Gaugin, Monet, Munch, Picasso, Rousseau and other famous artists.
Special exhibitions are visitor magnets
Other centers in the collection are paintings of Dutch art from the 16th and 17th centuries, 19th century paintings and mainly expressionist paintings from the 20th century. Classical sculptures by French sculptors and buildings from the modern era complete the huge portfolio, as do artistic works on paper.
The collection contains a total of 3,000 paintings, 500 sculptures and around 30,000 prints and photographs. There have been over 3100 exhibitions since the museum was founded, which are documented in the in-house library with documents such as admission tickets, posters and reviews.
Since the 1980s, special exhibitions have been given greater prominence. The exhibitions on Impressionism in particular have been visitor magnets in recent years. The most successful show to date was the Monet exhibition at the turn of 2009/2010, which attracted around 300,000 visitors.
