Celebrated by his contemporaries, long overlooked by art history: this exhibition is dedicated to the work of the painter Philipp Klein (1871–1907), who died at an early age, and invites visitors to rediscover an almost forgotten artist.
The self-taught artist from Mannheim developed a distinctive visual language early on, characterized by a keen sense of light, color, and atmospheric transitions. In his paintings, the world seems to unfold in shimmering snapshots—scenes full of movement, brightness, and quiet intensity. Together with the Reiss-Engelhorn Museums in Mannheim, the Landesmuseum Hannover is presenting a comprehensive tribute to this extraordinary oeuvre for the first time. Around 100 works paint a multi-layered picture of Klein's artistic range: beach and garden landscapes, haunting portraits, and nuanced depictions of women offer a glimpse into a painter who took Impressionism further in his own unique way.
Many of the works on display had been hidden away in private collections for decades and are now accessible to the public for the first time. The presentation is complemented by works byfemale companions and contemporariessuch as Lovis Corinth, Max Liebermann and Paula Modersohn-Becker, who place Klein's work in an art-historical context and put it into a broader perspective. This reveals not only his individual talent, but also a network of artistic relationships that shaped Impressionism around 1900. The exhibition allows visitors to experience Philipp Klein as an independent voice of this era—and restores his work to the place it deserves.
April 24 to October 25, 2026
