Kunst des "Sturm und Drang"

There were a striking number of unusual artists also born in German speaking countries in the mid-18th century.
The sculptor Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (1736-83) with his caricatured, distorted heads was somewhat older, but can be linked to this particular group of individuals. His works can be seen as reflecting an interest in physiognomy and gestures, but they simultaneously went beyond "accepted" norms in art. Johann Heinrich Füßli (1741-1825) from Zurich, removed himself one step further from prevailing tastes. The painter Müller (born Friedrich Müller, 1749-1825) was equally individualistic, although his work was very different stylistically. The engraver Carl Wilhelm Kolbe the Elder (1759-1835), who executed surreal, giant trees and fantastic, primeval swamp landscapes, was one of the barely classifiable unique talents. German art history (v.a. Landsberger, Stange, Reetz, Grote, Isenbörger) has attempted to categorise these masters as the visual representatives of the "Sturm und Drang" literary epoch. Alongside the thoroughly credible idea that they shared the spiritual influence of the young Goethe’s "genius", many attempts were made to link artists to a stylistic programme. The programme included the characteristics of choppiness, individualism, painterly naturalism, as well as "Gothicism" (Landsberger, 1931). The artists can only be said to share one characteristic: originality. "Sturm und Drang", can thus be better understood as an expression of spiritual-historical tendencies, than a genuine stylistic period in itself.