Hans Baldung Grien (1484/1485 – 1545) is one of the great artists of the German sixteenth century. The artist spent most of his career in Strasbourg, after a stint in the studio of Albrecht Dürer in Nuremberg. His work is characterized by a vast thematic register and a wide variety of supports: painted panels with rich acidulous palettes, drawings with naturalistic precision, and prints of extraordinary creative power. The originality of his designs affects his favorite themes: macabre or witchcraft scenes, as well as the subtle portraits of his contemporaries or liturgical or allegorical paintings.

Echoing the major retrospective exhibition devoted to Baldung Grien by the Staatliche Kunsthalle in Karlsruhe, which houses one of the most prestigious collections of works by this artist. The Strasbourg Musée de l’Œuvre Notre-Dame, in collaboration with the Cabinet of Prints and Drawings organize this exhibition of Baldung Grien’s large collection of engravings from the Strasbourg collections, which will show the extent and mastery of his graphic work.

The exhibition will be completed by an catalogue on Baldung Grien and the images of the Reformation in Strasbourg. This presentation will endeavor to show the conditions for the development of propaganda art in Strasbourg and the particular position of Baldung Grien in the new context of the city’s transition to Protestantism, by comparing it to that of other artists such as Heinrich Vogtherr the Elder or Hans Weiditz.

Curators: Cécile Dupeux, chief curator of the Œuvre Notre-Dame museum and Frank Muller, professor emeritus of modern history at the University of Strasbourg, with the collaboration of Florian Siffer, conservation attaché, head of the Cabinet of Prints and Drawings from Strasbourg.