As a rule, Museum Insel Hombroich does not loan its artworks. This was decreed by museum founder and collector Karl-Heinrich Müller himself: “The purpose of the museum is to give artworks a permanent instal­la­tion and a final desti­na­tion.”

However, after careful conside­ra­tion, Stiftung Insel Hombroich has decided to make an one-time exception to this rule. In a research project conducted over several years, the Museum der bildenden Künste – a museum in Leipzig specia­li­sing in fine art – deter­mined that Corinth’s Walchensee, Spring­brunnen painting was from the coll­ec­tion belonging to the Halber­stam family in Leipzig, who were forced to emigrate to the USA to escape perse­cu­tion from the Nazis. The work, which is today in Hombroich, had been taken by the family with them to the USA and was acquired by Karl Heinrich Müller in July 1983 (who in all proba­bi­lity did not obtain it under unjust circum­s­tances).

In its exhi­bi­tion Vier Wände voller Kunst. Jüdische Familien und ihre Samm­lungen in Leipzig (Four walls full of art. Jewish families and their coll­ec­tions in Leipzig), which is to be held from 30 September 2026 to 31 January 2027, the museum will examine for the very first time the valuable contri­bu­tion made by Jewish collector families to the city’s cultural life. In this excep­tional case, Stiftung Insel Hombroich will make available Lovis Corinth’s painting Walchensee, Spring­brunnen for this extensive presen­ta­tion. Please note that, owing to these circum­s­tances, a photo­gra­phic repro­duc­tion of this work in its original size will be on display in the Labyrinth instead between mid-August 2026 and mid-February 2026.

Lovis Corinth
Walchensee, Spring­brunnen (Walchensee Fountain), 1920
Oil on canvas, 109 x 79 cm