Ingenious reflections, spatial nesting and magical lighting were some of the central interests of painter and scientist Johann Erdmann Hummel (1769–1852). His artistic work is characterised by sober matter-of-factness on the one hand and a headstrong, playful delight in details, which drifts off into transcendent zones, on the other. Born in Kassel, the artist arrived in Berlin in 1800. There, in 1809, he took up the newly established Chair of Optics, Perspective and Architecture at the Berlin Akademie der Künste. His teaching, research and publications on the laws of visual perception were ground-breaking and influenced following generations. Hummel’s artfully constructed, often mysterious and overly realistic compositions are distinguished by a clarity of line and a keenly felt colourism. They anticipate modernist trends such as the New Objectivity, which will be represented by selected works. This will be the first exhibition in 100 years to focus on the work of Johann Erdmann Hummel.