The collection of older art at the Museum zu Allerheiligen spans over 500 years of art history, beginning in the late Middle Ages and ending with the Second World War. Since 1848, the year the Swiss Confederation was founded, it has been continuously expanded—initially by the Kunstverein Schaffhausen, and later by the museum, which opened in 1938.

Today the collection of older art includes some 2,000 paintings, 300 sculptures, and 30,000 works on paper. The new permanent exhibition curated by Dr. Andreas Rüfenacht showcases a surprising selection from this diverse inventory of art from the region, throughout Switzerland, and around the world, telling stories of change, adaptation, rebellion, tradition, and innovation in art history spanning half a millennium.

The New Presentation

A focal point is modernist art in Schaffhausen and throughout Switzerland. Works by local painters such as Richard Emil Amsler, Hans Sturzenegger, and Carl Roesch engage in dialogue with pieces by Ferdinand Hodler, Giovanni Giacometti, and Felix Vallotton. Another focus follows art history from the early modern period to the art movements of the 19th century. Lucas Cranach the Elder, Tobias Stimmer, Johann Heinrich Füssli, Alexander Trippel, and other significant figures offer insights into changes in artistic expressions. Baroque portraits from Schaffhausen and landscape paintings by Swiss minor masters around Louis Bleuler, including several depictions of the Rhine Falls, are also on view.

This new presentation offers a cross-section of the collection. However, it is not intended to remain static, but rather to allow for regular exchanges of works from the museum’s collection ranging from 1500 to 1945 in the individual rooms, bringing new connections and themes into focus.