BERLIN.- This winter, the Gemäldegalerie at Berlin’s Kulturforum welcomes visitors into an intimate world shaped by one man’s lifelong love of art. “This Is All Me! The Christoph Müller Donation, Part III: On Traveling and Being at Home” opened on December 2, 2025, marking the third chapter of a remarkable four-part series celebrating Müller’s generous bequest of nearly 200 works to the Kupferstichkabinett.

The show brings together drawings, prints, and watercolors spanning five centuries, yet the thread tying them together is deeply personal. This installment explores the intertwined themes of travel and home—ideas Müller held close throughout his life. The selected works drift between atmospheric landscapes, calm seascapes, and bustling city scenes, revealing places where artists paused, departed, or dreamed of returning. Many pieces echo Müller’s own cherished geographies: the cultural heart of Berlin and the windswept shores of Sassnitz on the island of Rügen.

Born in 1938, Christoph Müller led a life marked by curiosity, generosity, and an abiding devotion to the arts. A former publisher from Tübingen who settled in Berlin in 2004, he became what many affectionately called a “Robin Hood of art.” Quietly and consistently, he strengthened museums across Germany with significant donations and targeted support. His connection to the Kupferstichkabinett was especially meaningful; he admired former director Max J. Friedländer’s sharp eye and elegant prose so deeply that he endowed a prize in his name.

Müller’s relationship with the museum spans decades. In 2007, he gifted more than 240 drawings and 130 prints of Dutch art, a landmark donation. His most recent bequest further expands the museum’s holdings with works that mirror his eclectic taste and wide-ranging interests. His death in 2024 at age 86 left a profound absence in Berlin’s cultural landscape, and this exhibition serves as a heartfelt tribute to a patron whose impact continues to resonate.

The series continues this spring with “Sheets and Life’s Work,” focusing on nature in all its forms—animals, plants, forests, and symbolic landscapes. Together, these exhibitions form a sweeping portrait not only of artistic history but also of Müller’s spirit: curious, generous, and forever searching.

In a fitting legacy, all donated works are now being made available to the public and scholars both online and in the Kupferstichkabinett’s study room—ensuring, as Müller believed, that art remains a space for discovery, reflection, and joy.