Twenty-nine chairs stood in Schlosspark Steinhöfel in October 2006.
In conjunction with the “Friedrich Gilly in Steinhöfel” exhibition, I looked into his life and times. He was born in 1772 and died in 1800. I was interested in exploring what life was like for someone living then, what news from distant lands he might have heard about, and what was happening elsewhere coincidentally that he perhaps had no inkling of. I sought out an event for each year.
In his short life of twenty-nine years, Gilly visited neighboring European countries and became acquainted with artists, musicians and literary figures in many places, becoming friends with some of them.
It was also a time of major political events, such as the French Revolution and the American Declaration of Independence. Apart from those great and radical political upheavals, the facts assembled here help make that era become somewhat more alive for us.