Berlin exhibition on Paul Cassirer closes today: the dealer who brought French Impressionism to Germany

The exhibition “Cassirer: Breakthrough of Impressionism” (May 22 – September 27, 2026) closes today, September 27, 2026, at Berlin’s Alte Nationalgalerie, dedicated to Paul Cassirer (1871–1926) a century after his death. The exhibition also coincides with the 150th anniversary of the museum building itself, as USA Art News reports.

The Berlin art dealer is known as the man who brought French Impressionism to Germany: in his gallery he exhibited Monet, Manet, Cézanne, Van Gogh and Munch. Together with his cousin Bruno he founded the Kunstsalon in 1898 and took it over fully in 1901. The gallery in the Tiergarten district had an interior by Art Nouveau architect Henry van de Velde, and works were hung in a single row — unlike the crowded salon hangs of the time. A contemporary cartoon summed up his approach: “from Monet and Manet to money.”

The exhibition features over 100 works of Impressionism and classical modernism, including Degas’s “Miss La La” (1879), Renoir’s “Lise with a Parasol” (1867), the portrait Max Slevogt painted of Cassirer’s daughter (1901) and Manet’s “The Monet Family in the Garden at Argenteuil”. His strategy — repeatedly exhibiting unsold works to educate the public in new styles — culminated in 1914 with the largest Van Gogh exhibition ever organized: 151 works.

The exhibition also shows the clashes of the era. In 1911, painter Carl Vinnen wrote the “Protest of German Artists” against French art, signed by 140 artists; Cassirer joined the “Reply” organized by Kandinsky and Franz Marc. The then head of the Nationalgalerie, Hugo von Tschudi, was removed from office because he bought French art through Cassirer, while Kaiser Wilhelm II was tightening control over national collections to promote German nationalism.

The exhibition — curated by Josephine Klinger, with project manager Franziska Lietzmann — raises the question of how private trade and public museums cooperated to shape national tastes and collections, and values transparency about the acquisition routes of works.

Édouard Manet, “Le Déjeuner” (1868) — one of the masterpieces of French Impressionism that dealer Paul Cassirer promoted in Germany.