Tenderness in Munich

Two days was not enough time to spend in Munich, but what an astonishing trove of unexpected treasure can be found there, if only you know where to look. Before I’d always focused on the Third Reich associations, as Munich was the cradle of National Socialism, so I’d never properly explored the vast number of exquisite artworks that are hanging in almost deserted museums like the Neue Pinakothek  or the Lenbachhaus, whose room devoted to the animal paintings of Munich native Franz Marc is unforgettable. I especially loved his deer frolicking in the snow, a work of great beauty from an artist who was destined to die in the First World War. Compare the gentle vulnerability of these paintings to the tortured postwar works of Otto Dix and Georg Grosz. Above all, as someone commented to me, they embody tenderness, which is a greatly underrated virtue.