Lake Starnberg

In 1848 King Maximilian II of Bavaria approved two novelties for Lake Starnberg, a railway from Munich and a steamer on the water. The steamer Maximilian, built for 300 passengers, went into service in 1851, and the direct line from Munich opened in November 1854. With them came the first crowds of day-trippers. Christian Morgenstern's small canvas, about 35 by 42 centimetres and signed at the lower right, belongs to the decade before. The museum dates it only to the 1840s. Morgenstern kept returning to the lake, and the Lenbachhaus also owns his Fishing Nets on Lake Starnberg, dated 1854, the year the trains arrived.