Zurich painter and etcher Conrad Meyer (1618–1689) is considered the most important artist of the Swiss Baroque. Surprisingly, he has never been featured in a monographic museum presentation. This circumstance is now being remedied with a comprehensive exhibition at the Kunst Museum Winterthur that highlights the significance of his work for the first time.

With an extensive oeuvre, the versatile artist is one of the most celebrated Swiss artists of the early modern period. A cosmopolitan and brave spirit, Meyer was an innovator who dared to push the limits of the art world of his time.

He received early art training from his father, Dietrich Meyer, who was the teacher of Matthäus Merian; he quickly mastered a wide range of disciplines. As a young man, he worked all over Europe. He was a prolific artist who created a great number of works, including over one thousand designs for prints, most of which he did himself. Meyer introduced the tradition of publishing an annual edition of New Year Prints by the Main Library in Zurich, which is still continued today. The artist also did pioneer work in the area of topographical nature studies and is considered the founder of Alpine painting, which paved the way for subsequent generations from Alexandre Calame to Ferdinand Hodler.

Although Meyer is well known among specialists, his oeuvre has still not been systematically studied. A few years ago, a circle of interested scholars banded together to compile a comprehensive, seminal publication. This book, which will be published by Schwabe in 2025, provided the incentive for mounting this exhibition to present original works by Meyer to a new audience. Paintings, drawings, and prints by the artist, many of which have not been seen for hundreds of years, will be displayed alongside works of the Dutch Golden Age at the Museum Reinhardt am Stadtgarten.

 Curated by David Schmidhauser