Explorations in Europe. Visual Studies in the 19th Century

In the 19th century, travelling artists and scientists set out to become acquainted with and explore other cultures. The things they saw were captured in their pictures and photographs. They also had architectural models created to scale of the constructions they found along the way. One impressive example of such an expedition is highlighted here in the oil paintings and miniature buildings by the Berlin painter Wilhelm Kiesewetter, who spent 14 years in the mid-19th century travelling extensively through North and Eastern Europe. At this point in time photography was still in its infancy, but developed rapidly, with the result that scientific photography soon replaced detailed drawings and pictures. And it was in this area in particular that scientists such as Rudolf Virchow from the Berliner Gesellschaft für Ethnologie, Anthropologie und Urgeschichte (a society for ethnology, anthropology and prehistory), left their mark.