Stadel Museum

The Stadel began in 1815 as a bequest: a Frankfurt banker left his house, his pictures and his money to the city's citizens rather than to a prince, which makes it the oldest museum foundation in Germany and still a private one. Seven hundred years of European painting hang in sequence, from Cranach and Vermeer's Geographer through Rembrandt and Tischbein's portrait of Goethe sprawled in the Roman countryside, then Monet, Renoir and a strong twentieth-century German floor. The contemporary collection sits underground in a hall added in 2012, lit by round skylights that surface as bubbles in the garden lawn above. It reads as one continuous argument about pictures rather than a set of separate departments.

History

The Städel was founded in 1817 on the bequest of the Frankfurt banker and art patron Johann Friedrich Städel, who left his house, collection and fortune for the purpose; the collection was shown at first in his home on the Rossmarkt, received its first exhibition building on the Neue Mainzer Strasse in 1833, and moved in 1878 to a Neo-Renaissance building by Oskar Sommer on the Schaumainkai. The gallery was rebuilt in 1966 to a design by Johannes Krahn, an extension by Gustav Peichl followed in 1990, and the underground wing for contemporary art by Schneider+Schumacher opened in February 2012, raising the display area from 4,000 m2 to 7,000 m2 (Wikipedia, Städel).

What you'll find

• Tischbein's Goethe in the Roman Campagna - the poet reclining in a white cloak, the picture Frankfurt treats as its own.
• Vermeer's The Geographer - one of very few Vermeers held in Germany.
• The Garden Halls - the 2012 underground extension with its grid of circular skylights.
• The modern floor - Beckmann, Kirchner and Picasso in daylight rooms.

When to go

Year round, closed Mondays, with a late opening midweek that thins the rooms considerably. Large loan exhibitions sell timed slots and fill weekends completely, so book ahead or come on a weekday morning. The lawn over the Garden Halls is usable in summer, and the riverside walk along the Museumsufer works best in late afternoon light.

Good to know

Frankfurt's museum bank is expensive to do properly and the Stadel alone is not cheap. The underground hall is handsome but airless in high season, and its low ceiling makes crowds feel worse than they are. Old master rooms rotate for conservation, so a specific painting is never guaranteed. English labelling is uneven beyond the highlights.

Nearby

The rest of the Museumsufer along the south bank, the Romer square across the river and the Palmengarten.

Key facts