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#germanart

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Hotspur🏳️‍🌈🇺🇦

"Gate in the Rocks," Karl Freidrich Schinkel, 1818.

Schinkle (1781-1841) was a painter, of course, but also an architect, urban planner, and a designer of furniture and theatrical sets. One of his set designs was the oft-reproduced starry set for Mozart's "The Magic Flute" which you've probably seen somewhere. He also helped chape Berlin from being a small provincial city to a major capitol.

As an architect, he mostly worked in a Neoclassical style until turning to Neo-Gothic in his later life; artistically, he was solidly a Romantic. This dramatic canvas seems to have been influenced by a trip to Friulia, a region of Italy by the German border. If it looks anything like this, I want to go.

From the Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin.

A 19th century German Romantic painting. We are looking out a dramatic mountain grotto at a gorge. To our right, at the entrance of the grotto, is a bell with a meditating monk. Outside the grotto, to our right, we can see a group of travelers with a mule; one is looking over the edge at a group of grazing goats. Further on we see the gorge, with a small castle on a hill, and beyond it, rolling mountains and a rising sun.
#Art#GermanArt#Romanticism
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Hotspur🏳️‍🌈🇺🇦

"Caesar at the Rubicon," Wilhelm Trübner, 1878.

Trübner (1851-1917) was a German Realist painter. Although never a major name (many of his paintings were too somber to really be popular) he did achieve a few humorous paintings with his dog, Caesar, that have endured.

He also did a lot to advance the idea of "art for art's sake," that is that a work of art should not just depict something beautiful, but be beautiful in and of itself, and that art should be free of utilitarian and didactic concerns. This was a reaction to a generation of artists who felt their art had to have a message and make a stand.

Eh...there's more than enough room for both, I say.

From the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna.

A Realist painting. We see a tabletop, with a white cloth covering most of it, and a plate of sausages in the foreground. In the background, a dog (a mastiff) has his head on the tabletop, looking yearningly at the sausages, but also aware that if he takes them, that would be Bad.
#Art#GermanArt#Realism
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Hotspur🏳️‍🌈🇺🇦

"Samson and Delilah," Max Liebermann, 1902.

Liebermann (1847-1935) was a brilliant artist at a horrible time. He was a leading proponent of German Impressionism, was a leader of the Berlin Secession, an influential avant-garde art movement, but late in life, at the height of his artistic power, his work was dropped by major galleries because he was Jewish, and later all work by Jewish artists was banned.

He died of natural causes, but his paintings, as well as his personal collection, were looted by the Nazis. Liebermann's heirs are still struggling to reclaim his property.

This version of the story is interesting; Liebermann presents it as a modern battle of the sexes, without reference to any sort of Biblical setting.

From the Städel Museum, Frankfurt.

A Symbolist painting. A nude couple are on a bed; the man is asleep. The woman, who is sitting up, holds aloft a handful of his hair. She looks upward to her right, dramatically and proudly.
#Art#GermanArt#JewishArtists
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Hotspur🏳️‍🌈🇺🇦

"Gothic Windows in the Ruins of the Monastery at Oybin," Carl Gustav Carus, c. 1828.

German-born Carus (1789-1869) wasn't just an artist...he was also a doctor, naturalist, scientist, and psychologist, and he studied landscape painting under the great Romantic Caspar David Friedrich, whose influence can be seen here.

He was personal physician to King Frederick Augustus II of Saxony, and traveled with him to meet Queen Victoria. As a naturalist, he originated the notion of vertebrates vs. invertebrates, gently revolutionizing biology. He was also a prolific author, writing books on zoology, nature, medicine, psychology, travel, and art theory.

Here we have a scene from inside a ruined monastery, built in 1369 and abandoned in 1546, and which became a favorite haunt of the Romantics in the 1820s. Despite the Gothic material, the feeling it gives is almost positive and hopeful, looking through the ruins to a new day.

From the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

A Romantic scene. We're standing in a ruined Gothic church, looking out glassless windows with elaborate tracery to a misty, vague landscape beyond. A few scrublike bushes are growing inside the walls of the ruined monastery.
#Art#GermanArt#Romanticism
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Hotspur🏳️‍🌈🇺🇦

"Mountains in the Rising Fog," Caspar David Friedrich, c. 1835.

Friedrich (1774-1840) seems perfect for spooky season; his Romantic landscapes, once nearly forgotten, have been rediscovered by a new generation of Romantics....although it was a bumpy ride, with his work being briefly co-opted by the Nazi party, then dismissed in the face of growing modernism, and then being exploited by Disney and horror-movie makers. In the 1970s he began to be taken seriously again and now is the subject of many a museum exhibit.

The view is of the Rosenberg, in Bohemian Switzerland. Makes the imagination go wild, eh? Dark castles, swordfights, mad scientists, curses, witches...whatever your mind can dream up...

From the Städel Museum, Frankfurt.

A Romantic landscape. A view of a mountain range, with one slope with pine trees in the foreground, and higher peaks in the background. Rising fog obscures the details, but it is still realistically depicted.
#Art#GermanArt#Romanticism
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Uwe Werner
Die Freiheitsglocke in Leipzig, die wie ein Ei aussieht, ist ein ungewöhnliches Kunstwerk auf dem Augustusplatz. Ihre ovale Form und die glänzende Oberfläche ziehen Blicke auf sich und erinnern symbolisch an den Aufbruch und die Neugestaltung. Ein spannendes Zusammenspiel von Freiheit, Tradition und moderner Kunst im Herzen der Stadt.

The Freedom Bell in Leipzig, which looks like an egg, is an unusual artwork located on Augustusplatz. Its oval shape and shiny surface catch the eye, symbolizing renewal and transformation. This intriguing blend of freedom, tradition, and modern art stands at the heart of the city, inviting reflection on the past and future.


#FreedomBellLeipzig #LeipzigArt #ModernArt #LeipzigHistory #SymbolOfFreedom #UrbanArt #CityOfChange #CulturalLandmark #ArtInPublicSpaces #LeipzigCulture #EggShapedSculpture #GermanArt #CitySymbol #PublicArt #LeipzigLandmarks #ArtAndHistory #ContemporaryArt #LeipzigMonuments #SculptureArt #LeipzigVibes
Freedom Bell, Leipzig
#leipzigvibes
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Hotspur🏳️‍🌈🇺🇦

"Landscape with Mountain Lake, Morning," Caspar David Friedrich, c. 1823-35.

Happy birthday to Caspar David Friedrich, born this day in 1774!

He was THE great Romantic artist, often doing allegorical paintings of human figures contemplating some natural scene that dwarfs them...or maybe Gothic ruins (because, after all, Gothicism is an outgrowth of Romanticism).

Here he's got a small human figure pausing by the side of a lake in a dramatic mountain landscape. If you squint a little, you can make out a large building on the other side of the lake, perhaps a palace of some sort (just over the man's head) but it's overwhelmed in size and majesty by the lake and the mountains. This is Friedrich's message...that Nature will always be bigger than Man.

His tragedy was that he outlived his fame; his style went out of fashion and when he died in 1840, he was lonely and half-forgotten. But in modern times he's been rediscovered and his art revived...especially as it's now in public domain and has been used as cover art for various editions of Gothic novels and the like. His dramatic views help set the tone.

From a private collection.

A Romantic landscape. Amid some towering mountains, a solitary man with a walking stick pauses by the side of a lake near some grazing cattle. The scene is dominated by the towering mountains; on the far shore of the lake, above the man's head, we can see a large building on the lakeside, perhaps a palace of some sort, but it's dwarfed in size and majesty by the lake and the mountains.
#Art#GermanArt#Romanticism
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Hotspur🏳️‍🌈🇺🇦

"Geroldsauer Valley Close to Baden-Baden," Johann Wilhelm Schirmer, 1855.

Schirmer (1807-1863) started as a painter of historical scenes, but later found his calling as a landscape painter, one of the founding members of what was later known as the Dusseldorf School. His work embraced both Classicism and Romanticism, and also included Biblical scenes.

Here we have a real-life valley in Germany, depicts an early morning in that golden time of late summer/early fall. A woman with a parasol and a young man (lower right) are wandering, taking in the air. Below us stretches a vista of farm fields, trees, and scattered houses, including a mill. A road stretches through the valley, following a stream. In the distance we have various peaks of the Black Forest mountains, realistically depicted.

I love this scene; it reminds me so much of the Appalachian scenery of my home.

From the Staatsliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe.

A Romantic landscape. We're standing on a bramble-covered hillside, looking out over a mountain valley. A few houses and a mill are below, and a winding road beside a stream. Below stretch cultivated fields, flocks, and trees, and in the distance, realistically-depicted peaks of the Black Forest mountains. In the lower right corner, easily missed, is a woman with a parasol and a boy, obviously just wandering and enjoying the morning air.
#Art#GermanArt#Romanticism
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