This history of 19th-century Hessian painters, some of them known beyond the bounds of the region, reflects 19th-century German art history from Romanticism to plein-air painting and from Biedermeier to Symbolism while at the same time providing a solid view of the collection of the Hessian State Museum in Darmstadt, from its beginnings at the Grand Duke's court through its purchasing policies around 1900 to its supplementary purchases today. A complete catalogue of the museum's stocks with biographies of the artists, based in part on previously unknown source material.