The largest collection of Blue Rider (Der Blaue Reiter) paintings in the world is the top art attraction in the Lenbachhaus Museum in Munich.
The Lenbachhaus art museum in Munich is famous for owning the largest collection of The Blue Rider (Der Blaue Reiter) paintings, sketches, prints, and sculptures in the world. The colorful avant-garde works produced by artists such as Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, August Macke, Gabriele Münter, and Paul Klee shortly before the First World War remain very popular. The Lenbachhaus also has large permanent collections of nineteenth and twentieth-century art. The Lenbachhaus is in the Munich Kunstareal art district across the road from the Glyptothek.
“Blue Rider” Lenbachhaus Art Museum in Munich
Die Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus (Municipal Gallery) in Munich is mostly famous for owning the world’s largest collection of artworks by the short-lived Blue Rider (Der Blaue Reiter) art movement. Seeing the pre-First World War works by expressionist artists such as Franz Marc, Wassily Kandinsky, and Auguste Macke is for many the main reason to visit this art museum in Munich.
However, with well over 28,000 artworks, the Lenbachhaus is much more than just a collection of Blue Rider paintings, prints, and drawings. The permanent exhibitions in the museum cover mainly Munich-based artists from the 19th century (including Franz von Lenbach, who originally owned the villa where the main museum is based), Der Blaue Reiter, Neue Sachlichkeit, and Contemporary Art (post-1945 including Joseph Buys).
Even the permanent exhibitions of the Lenbachhaus change frequently with few displays remaining unaltered for more than a couple of years. Blockbuster temporary exhibitions may require special admission requirements and time-slot reservation tickets.
Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) — 1911-1914
Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) was a loose association or network of avant-garde artists mostly based in Munich (and Murnau) in the three years before the onset of the First World War. It was not really a formal art movement or even an art group — most of the members in this period are now classified as German expressionists.
The name is associated mainly with the publication of Der Blaue Reiter art almanac in 1912, which featured a woodcut by Kandinsky of a horse with a rider on the cover. (Modern reproductions of the almanac sell for €98 in the museum shop.)
Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc were the main drivers of The Blue Rider but other associated artists included amongst others August Macke, Alexej von Jawlensky, Marianne von Werefkin, Gabriele Münter, Erma Bossi, and Paul Klee. Their artworks in this period were mostly bright and colorful. In addition to paintings, which remain the most popular medium today, they also produced many drawings, prints, and sculptures.
The Blue Rider artists generally promoted modern art but they were also very interested to varying degrees in medieval art, primitive art, folk art, and art from outside Europe. Many were spiritual and emphasized spiritual connections to color and art. The general movement was towards abstraction, especially in later periods.
The group organized two exhibitions in Munich in 1911 and 1912 but is best known for the Der Blaue Reiter almanac published in May 1912. The almanac included primitive, folk, and children’s art, with pieces from the South Pacific and Africa, Japanese drawings, medieval German woodcuts and sculpture, Egyptian puppets, Russian folk art, and Bavarian religious art painted on glass. It also had some poems and thoughts about music, composition, and sounds. It included prints of works by Picasso, Van Gogh, Cézanne, and Gauguin.
The Blue Rider came to an abrupt end with the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. The planned second almanac would never be published. The Russians Kandinsky, Von Jawlensky, and Von Werefkin had to flee Germany (and all survived the war). August Macke died in France within two months of the outbreak of hostilities. Franz Marc fell at Verdun in 1916.
Wassily Kandinsky declined to revive The Blue Rider in the 1920s without his dead friend. For Kandinsky, The Blue Rider was the combination of Marc’s love of horses, Kandinksy’s love of riders, and their shared love of the color blue.
The Blue Rider Art in the Lenbachhaus in Munich
Although most of the artworks on display in the museum are not by The Blue Rider artists, the Lenbachhaus is forever principally associated with Der Blaue Reiter and a good selection is always on display. Even if the museum is keen to promote its other art, the Lenbachhaus remains the best place in the world to see The Blue Rider works.
Der Blaue Reiter almanac remains an item of fascination to many art lovers. In addition to the almanac and reprints, a popular display includes 12 of the designs Kandinsky considered for the cover of the first issue.
Der Blaue Reiter is usually on the top floor of the modern building but temporary exhibitions may also place works in other locations.
Permanent Art Exhibitions in the Lenbachhaus
In addition to The Blue Rider and temporary art exhibitions, the permanent collections and displays in the Lenbachhaus art museum in Munich include:
Lenbach Reception Rooms and Paintings
Franz von Lenbach (1836–1904) was the leading figure in the formal Munich art scene at the end of the 19th century. The Florentine-style villa was built for him in the late 1880s and acquired by the city of Munich in 1924 to house the municipal art collection.
Lenbach is mostly known as a high-society portrait painter including around 80 paintings of Otto von Bismarck. Although currently fairly out of fashion, he was very popular in his lifetime and in the 1930s — over a hundred of his works are on the list of the German Lost Art Foundation. Although he was an early adoptor of using photography as an aid, he refused to join the Munich Secession and probably would not have liked the Avant-garde works of Der Blaue Reiter artists.
Some of his formal reception rooms were maintained as decorated in his lifetime and these are absolutely worth seeing. Paintings here include an unfinished Bismarck and a famous family portrait, which reminds of a photograph being taken. (Lenbach used photographs for many paintings as famous people were notoriously unkeen to sit still for portrait paintings.) Several paintings are Lenbach’s copies of famous works, a practice he found completely acceptable and profitable during his earlier career. He also painted several very realistic, almost photograph-accurate scenes on his travels to Italy and Egypt.
19th Century Art in the Lenbachhaus
The original purpose of the Lenbachhaus collection was to exhibit German art from the 19th and early 20th centuries. The large 19th-century art collection has a special emphasis on Munich and Bavarian artists but also features work by others.
Many works — including portraits and imaginary landscapes — are by more traditional academic painters such as Franz von Lenbach, Wilhelm Busch, Carl Spitzweg, and Hans Thoma. However, even conservative Bavaria was not isolated from wider European art trends with impressionism and art nouveau making a colorful appearance towards the end of the 19th century.
Some of the better-known artists on display include Munich Secessionist painters such as Lovis Corinth, Franz von Stuck, and Max Slevogt, as well as Franz von Stuck, who was a leading figure in the Münchner Jugendstil (Art Nouveau).
The museum recently acquired a large collection of other German schools, as well as works from the French Barbizon school including paintings by Théodore Rousseau, Gustave Courbet Camille Corot.
Neue Sachlichkeit
In response to the horrors of the First World War, many artists turned to New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit) in the 1920s and 1930s. Otto Dix is the most famous German artist from this period but the Lenbachhaus has many paintings by others such as Georg Schrimpf, Rudolf Schlichter, Christian Schad, and Franz Radziwills.
Some of the works in this period by surviving Der Blaue Reiters artists, including Wassily Kandinsky and Gabrielle Münter, were classified as “degenerate art”. Not surprisingly, these works and artists were not popular in the Third Reich, although several became widely known due to the Entartete Kunst exhibitions that toured Germany and brought modern art to the masses.
Contemporary Art — Art After 1945
The Lenbachhaus has a large collection of German contemporary art. The focus of post-1980s art in the collection is artists with a special relationship with Munich. The collection also includes newer mediums such as video, graphics, photography, and pop art. (Pop art is a leading theme in the nearby Museum Brandhorst — its collections of Andy Warhol and Cy Twombly are unequaled in Europe.)
The museum’s contemporary art collection aims to acquire works by a few artists intensively. Some of the artists favored by the museum include Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Günter Fruhtrunk, Rupprecht Geiger, Maria Lassnig, Sarah Morris, and Isa Genzken.
Joseph Buys
Several German contemporary art museums have a continued fascination with the works of Joseph Buys (b. 1921) including the Lenbachhaus that have a few special rooms set aside for his large installations. (The Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin has a particularly large display of Buys works.)
Lenbachhaus Museum Visitor’s Information
Opening Hours and Tickets
The Lenbachhaus is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00; closing at 20:00 on Thursdays.
Admission tickets for the Lenbachhaus are €12 and free for children under 18.
Entry is free for all on the first Thursday of the month from 18:00 to 20:00.
Admission is covered by the Munich City Pass or discounted by the Munich City Tour Card.
Download the free audio guide before visiting the museum — it is available for free to all from the various mobile phone app stores.
Transportation to the Lenbachhaus Art Museum
Die Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Luisenstraße 33, 80333 München, is part of the Munich Kunstareal not far from the München Hauptbahnhof (Munich Main Train Station).
The entrance is in the new modern golden cube next to the historicist older Lenbach Palace. The museum is across the road from the Glyptothek with its fantastic collection of Greek and Roman sculptures and only a few blocks from the Munich art giants: the Alte Pinakothek and the Pinakothek der Moderne. (The Neue Pinakothek is under renovation until at least 2029.)
More on Top Art Museums in München
- Where to See What — a brief description of Munich’s top art museums and galleries.
- Alte Pinakothek — top Old Master paintings (and some 19th-century paintings while the Neue Pinakothek is under renovation.)
- Glyptohek — one of the world’s best Greek and Roman sculpture collections from antiquity.
- Lenbachhaus — the largest The Blue Rider collection in the world but also modern art exhibitions.
- Save with the Munich Card and City Pass on transportation and sightseeing — most museums are covered.
- Visit the royal castles of King Ludwig II near Munich to see the 19th-century historicist interiors of Schloss Neuschwanstein, Linderhof, and Herrenchiemsee Palace.