DOI Heft:
Nr. 150 (September 1905)
DOI Artikel:Osborn, Max: Ludwig Dettmann
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20712#0300
Ludwig Dettmann
he proved how strongly the principles of a freer
artistic outlook had affected him. They were for
the most part landscape-studies in North Germany,
brought forth under the influences of the time,
which preferred all that was plainest and simplest
in nature. Hitherto she had been courted rather
where she was magnificent, pathetic, and rhetorical;
but now attention was turned to the unassuming
flat country, where suddenly every tree lighted up
by the sunshine, every lake that reflected the clear
or cloudy sky, every field whose upturned purple-
brown soil shimmered with changing hues, seemed
worthy of study. He explored the confines of
Brandenburg (whose usually rough and austere,
but often tender beauty his generation had first
properly discovered for art) and the extensive
regions of the Lowlands of Southern Germany.
He followed with devoted attention the play
of diffuse light, which changed with every season,
with every variation of weather, even with every
hour; and his lightly-touched-in water-colours
retained these effects with extraordinary aptitude.
The Berlin National Gallery possesses a whole
series of these leaflets from Dettmann’s hand.
But as soon as the young artist proceeded from
these little studies to larger works, his versatile
spirit sought to overstep the bounds of the purely
picturesque (Nur-malerische). While so doing he
placed himself in direct opposition to the modern
doctrine, which (from a reaction against an earlier
over-estimation of the subjective side of things)
proceeds, with strict one-sidedness, to dismiss as
“ literature ” all independent physical study, because
it may only too easily divert the attention of the
artist and the spectator from the main point—i.e.
the picturesque itself. Dettmann wanted to prove
that one could very well represent pictorially sensa-
tions, mental or spiritual affections, even thoughts,
by means of symbols, and yet remain a true artist.
And he succeeded in his aim, being the first
German “ modern ” to embark on this course—like
Fritz von Uhde of Munich in his religious subjects,
though after a different fashion.
A triptych, whose subject is the Fall of Man,
was his first work of importance, and attracted
much attention at the Berlin Exhibition of 1892.
The curse which has rested on the human race
from primeval times forms the sombre underlying
theme : “ In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat
bread.” This bitter malediction of a Deity offended
“a difficult landing”
282
(In the Dresden Gallery)
BY LUDWIG DETTMANN
he proved how strongly the principles of a freer
artistic outlook had affected him. They were for
the most part landscape-studies in North Germany,
brought forth under the influences of the time,
which preferred all that was plainest and simplest
in nature. Hitherto she had been courted rather
where she was magnificent, pathetic, and rhetorical;
but now attention was turned to the unassuming
flat country, where suddenly every tree lighted up
by the sunshine, every lake that reflected the clear
or cloudy sky, every field whose upturned purple-
brown soil shimmered with changing hues, seemed
worthy of study. He explored the confines of
Brandenburg (whose usually rough and austere,
but often tender beauty his generation had first
properly discovered for art) and the extensive
regions of the Lowlands of Southern Germany.
He followed with devoted attention the play
of diffuse light, which changed with every season,
with every variation of weather, even with every
hour; and his lightly-touched-in water-colours
retained these effects with extraordinary aptitude.
The Berlin National Gallery possesses a whole
series of these leaflets from Dettmann’s hand.
But as soon as the young artist proceeded from
these little studies to larger works, his versatile
spirit sought to overstep the bounds of the purely
picturesque (Nur-malerische). While so doing he
placed himself in direct opposition to the modern
doctrine, which (from a reaction against an earlier
over-estimation of the subjective side of things)
proceeds, with strict one-sidedness, to dismiss as
“ literature ” all independent physical study, because
it may only too easily divert the attention of the
artist and the spectator from the main point—i.e.
the picturesque itself. Dettmann wanted to prove
that one could very well represent pictorially sensa-
tions, mental or spiritual affections, even thoughts,
by means of symbols, and yet remain a true artist.
And he succeeded in his aim, being the first
German “ modern ” to embark on this course—like
Fritz von Uhde of Munich in his religious subjects,
though after a different fashion.
A triptych, whose subject is the Fall of Man,
was his first work of importance, and attracted
much attention at the Berlin Exhibition of 1892.
The curse which has rested on the human race
from primeval times forms the sombre underlying
theme : “ In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat
bread.” This bitter malediction of a Deity offended
“a difficult landing”
282
(In the Dresden Gallery)
BY LUDWIG DETTMANN