DOI Heft:
Nr. 150 (September 1905)
DOI Artikel:Osborn, Max: Ludwig Dettmann
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20712#0305
Ludwig Dettmann
“the spring of life”
BY LUDWIG DETTMANN
his impatience at once to master the quickly-grasped
motif-, a technique, in fact, that resembles the
hurried, stammering utterance of a man who, while
he is speaking, continually thinks ahead, and has
some difficulty in coping with his thronging ideas.
It is interesting to observe how this style reconciles
itself with the artist’s solid knowledge : how, on the
one hand, it is kept within bounds by his conscien-
tiousness towards nature, and is thus guarded against
falling into mere superficiality; and how, on the
other, it prevents this profundity of thought from
ever becoming tiresome. His temperament weaves
itself into every single picture ; with his colour a
drop of blood is always mingled. In Italy, too,
though that country could not retain a lasting sway
over the mind of the Lowland German, the play of
sunshine offered Dettmann many profitable oppor-
tunities. This was especially so at Lake Garda,
where the dazzling gleam of the sailing-boats and
the blue of the water beneath the clear sky rise to
gay and festive notes of colour; and he there pro-
duced in separate sketches that exquisite series of
water-colours which have so little in common with
any native Italian painting. The peculiar splendour
of the South but seldom captivated him, charming
from his hand pictures that appear quite foreign to
his character—such as the castle on the crags of the
Riviera, which rises up like a fairy citadel in the
magical southern moonlight. For the most part he
remained faithful to his North German tempera-
ment in the few other pictures that he painted
abroad, as in the beautiful interior of a church at
Meran.
Yet within the circle described by the charac-
teristic limitations of his individuality, there has
for some years been perceptible a slow change in
Dettmann’s technical forms of expression. His
execution is becoming broader, is given freer, larger
scope ; his brushwork is losing its abruptness and
becoming more alive ; the ensemble of his crowding
details is better grasped; and the sensation of
movement is attained by a fuller and richer sweep
of the determining lines. Whereas formerly the
air seemed to be animated by gentle fannings and
287
“the spring of life”
BY LUDWIG DETTMANN
his impatience at once to master the quickly-grasped
motif-, a technique, in fact, that resembles the
hurried, stammering utterance of a man who, while
he is speaking, continually thinks ahead, and has
some difficulty in coping with his thronging ideas.
It is interesting to observe how this style reconciles
itself with the artist’s solid knowledge : how, on the
one hand, it is kept within bounds by his conscien-
tiousness towards nature, and is thus guarded against
falling into mere superficiality; and how, on the
other, it prevents this profundity of thought from
ever becoming tiresome. His temperament weaves
itself into every single picture ; with his colour a
drop of blood is always mingled. In Italy, too,
though that country could not retain a lasting sway
over the mind of the Lowland German, the play of
sunshine offered Dettmann many profitable oppor-
tunities. This was especially so at Lake Garda,
where the dazzling gleam of the sailing-boats and
the blue of the water beneath the clear sky rise to
gay and festive notes of colour; and he there pro-
duced in separate sketches that exquisite series of
water-colours which have so little in common with
any native Italian painting. The peculiar splendour
of the South but seldom captivated him, charming
from his hand pictures that appear quite foreign to
his character—such as the castle on the crags of the
Riviera, which rises up like a fairy citadel in the
magical southern moonlight. For the most part he
remained faithful to his North German tempera-
ment in the few other pictures that he painted
abroad, as in the beautiful interior of a church at
Meran.
Yet within the circle described by the charac-
teristic limitations of his individuality, there has
for some years been perceptible a slow change in
Dettmann’s technical forms of expression. His
execution is becoming broader, is given freer, larger
scope ; his brushwork is losing its abruptness and
becoming more alive ; the ensemble of his crowding
details is better grasped; and the sensation of
movement is attained by a fuller and richer sweep
of the determining lines. Whereas formerly the
air seemed to be animated by gentle fannings and
287