Julius Meier-Graefe

Contemporaries praised the extremely successful books of the art writer and critic Julius Meier-Graefe (1867-1935) as a 'new school of seeing.' In his writings, he concentrated on modern painting, enshrined artists of the 19th century through his aesthetic reevaluations that saved them from obscurity, and substantially shaped the canon of art history in place today. Meier-Graefe became a central figure for a European cultural transfer in the early 20th century through his extraordinary literary productivity and his cultural and political authority. Friendships with artists such as Munch, van de Velde and Beckmann, an active collaboration with collectors, art dealers and museum directors, as well as his untiring efforts for Impressionism made Meier-Graefe a unique mediator of Modernism.