Wisconsin’s largest painting is moving from West Bend to Munich!
The Flagellants will triumphantly return to Germany after 115 years in U.S.
How do you move Wisconsin’s largest framed painting on canvas from West Bend to
Munich? After remaining in one place for over 30 years, the tricky task of removing
Carl von Marr’s The Flagellants for its journey home to Munich will begin on Monday,
April 14th at 8:00 a.m. This delicate job, likely taking several days, will involve
riggers from Hennes Services, carpentry work by Lawrence Construction, crate-making
by Country Cabinetry, conservation supervision by Tony Rajer, documentation by Mike
Ryan of West Bend Community Cable and assistance from museum staff. Visitors will
be able to observe most of the action from the balcony above the gallery!
After six months of negotiations between Munich’s Haus der Kunst, the Museum of
Wisconsin Art and the City of Milwaukee—owners of The Flagellants—this “jaw-dropping”
painting will triumphantly return to its “birthplace” in Munich, Germany, after
115 years in the U.S., to be exhibited at the city’s Haus der Kunst from May 30
to August 31, 2008. Completed in Munich between 1885 and 1889 by Milwaukee-born
Marr (1858-1936) the work measures an enormous 14’ x 23’ and is one of the largest
oil paintings on canvas framed in the U.S. The Flagellants has been on permanent
loan from the City of Milwaukee to the Museum of Wisconsin Art since 1976.
German scholar and curator Leon Krempel, PhD, of Munich’s Haus der Kunst, confirmed
the loan of The Flagellants inclusion into the Munich exhibition after seeing the
painting on January 27th at the MWA where he presented a lecture, Origins of Wisconsin
Art: The Munich Academy. The painting will be major component in the much-anticipated
exhibition 200 Years of the Academy, a retrospective of the Academy of Fine Arts
Munich at the Haus der Kunst. The painting will leave West Bend in early April and
not return until it is ready to be installed in the new building of the Museum of
Wisconsin Art, likely in three years.
The story of the painting’s origin is fascinating. While a student at the Royal
Munich Academy, Marr’s quest to take on such an ambitious painting project caused
controversy within the school, with senior administration fearing it was too ambitious
and threatening dismissal. Undeterred, Marr found his own studio space and his vision
prevailed, with The Flagellants not only receiving many awards in Germany, but it
was exhibited at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, where it was
priced at $20,000. It was subsequently bought by Mrs. Emil Schandein and transferred
to Milwaukee where it remained until 1976. Ironically, or perhaps fittingly, Marr
became a professor at the Academy in 1893 and eventually its director in 1919.
“Having the painting return to the academy that first rejected its very creation
to now be celebrated is a testament to its enduring quality and importance on both
sides of the Atlantic,” explained Tom Lidtke, Executive Director of the Museum of
Wisconsin Art. “While previous requests for the loan of this painting, from the
National Gallery of Art in Washington DC and the German History Museum in Berlin
were turned down, this loan request was granted for good reason and it is our plan
to leave the painting in Munich for storage while we construct our new building
for our regional art museum. We will have it back in West Bend for our opening in
a larger, even grander space!”
Website: Haus der Kunst