Hans Baldung Grien (1484/1485 - 1545), a painter with a very singular style, was among the most eminent German artists of the 16th century. After a period in Albrecht Dürer's studio in Nuremberg, he spent most of his career in Strasbourg. His work is characterized by a wide range of themes and variety of media.

His originality is seen both in his favourite themes, macabre scenes or witchcraft, and in the subtle portraits of his contemporaries or in liturgical and allegorical paintings. Echoing the important retrospective devoted to Baldung Grien by the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, the Musée de l'Œuvre Notre Dame and the Prints and Drawings Room are displaying engravings from the Strasbourg collections. This exhibition is supplemented by the exhibition-file "Baldung Grien and his Contemporaries, Art and the Reformation", which pinpoints the development of proselytising art forms in Strasbourg at that time. The particular stance adopted by Baldung Grien as the city turned towards Protestantism is discussed and compared to that of other artists like Heinrich Vogtherr the Elder or Hans Weiditz.

This exhibition benefits from the exceptional support of the Eurométropole de Strasbourg.

Exhibition Curators: Cécile Dupeux, Head Curator of Musée de l’Œuvre Notre-Dame and Frank Muller, Emeritus Professor of Modern History at the University of Strasbourg, with the collaboration of Florian Siffer, conservation assistant in charge of Strasbourg Prints and Drawings Room