In the entrance area of the Winklarn primary school, display boards provide information about the history of reverse glass painting, the so-called "Winklarn School", a permanently accessible exhibition. The family stories, living conditions, painting techniques, motifs and picture types of the reverse glass pictures, as well as the sales and distribution areas are explained.
Picturesque families in the Bavarian-Bohemian border area and in the Waldviertel discovered reverse glass painting as an additional source of income in the middle of the 19th century.
Soon there was great interest in devotional and votive pictures from Haberspirk (Habartov near Eger), Aussergefild (Kvilda), Buchers (Pohori nad Sumave), Heilbrunn (Hojna Voda) in Bohemia, Sandl in Austria, but also from Haidbühl in Bavaria, Neukirchen at the Hl. Blut, Raimundreut am Lusen and Winklarn.
At first, peddlers and standlabs sold the popular works of art, but soon six particularly talented Winklarner families of painters, spanning three generations, had plenty of commissioned work to do.
Even if the taste of the times has swept away the interest in reverse glass paintings, many such works of art still hang in private houses, pilgrimage chapels and churches. You can even find pictures from the "Winklarner Hinterglasmalerschule" in well-known museums.