DOI Heft:
No. 202 (January, 1910)
DOI Artikel:Glaser, M.: Ferdinand Engelmüller's Bohemian landscapes
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20968#0317
Ferdinand Engelmuller
"TWILIGHT" (PASTEL) BY FERDINAND ENGELMULLER
entirely without figures or other accessories; mostly interpreted by the artist, lends interest to the work,
it is some broad stretch of country, in which In the cycle of The Four Seasons, from which
we discern the characteristics of the southern we have selected Spring and Summer, it is the
regions of Bohemia, that he presents to our view, feeling by which they are pervaded that con-
and always it is rendered with perfect veracity and stitutes their essential moment and gives them
with telling effect. Simple bits of woody scenery so much charm; but they are at the same time
furnish the motifs for many of his pictures—a faithful renderings of nature. Especially deli-
group of trees, a remote spot in the recesses of a cate in sentiment and happy in composition is
forest, or a road skirting a tract of pasture land, the one representing Summer, with its tall dark trees
with an endless expanse of intense blue sky cover- and the calm pool in which their reflections are
ing the whole like a beautiful canopy. In these visible. Such a work as this points to an indefa-
pictures there is no trace of fortuity in the elements tigable study of nature. A further step forward in
of which they are composed, nor are they the the study of effects of light is to be observed in
products of the imagination ; what the artist offers the work called Twilight. In this study in sub-
is a consistent piece of pure landscape. Often, dued tones the distribution of the light in the
as in the picture called A Summer Day, which background, with its reflection on the pasture in
represents a bit of scenery in the district of Alt the foreground, is very ably carried out, and the
Bunzlau, we have an apparently humdrum tract work as a whole is one which in its frank sincerity
of flat country, redeemed however, as in this case, is distinctly pleasing. It is not in keeping with
by some peculiar atmospheric effect which, as Engelmiiller's nature to descend to artifices for
295
"TWILIGHT" (PASTEL) BY FERDINAND ENGELMULLER
entirely without figures or other accessories; mostly interpreted by the artist, lends interest to the work,
it is some broad stretch of country, in which In the cycle of The Four Seasons, from which
we discern the characteristics of the southern we have selected Spring and Summer, it is the
regions of Bohemia, that he presents to our view, feeling by which they are pervaded that con-
and always it is rendered with perfect veracity and stitutes their essential moment and gives them
with telling effect. Simple bits of woody scenery so much charm; but they are at the same time
furnish the motifs for many of his pictures—a faithful renderings of nature. Especially deli-
group of trees, a remote spot in the recesses of a cate in sentiment and happy in composition is
forest, or a road skirting a tract of pasture land, the one representing Summer, with its tall dark trees
with an endless expanse of intense blue sky cover- and the calm pool in which their reflections are
ing the whole like a beautiful canopy. In these visible. Such a work as this points to an indefa-
pictures there is no trace of fortuity in the elements tigable study of nature. A further step forward in
of which they are composed, nor are they the the study of effects of light is to be observed in
products of the imagination ; what the artist offers the work called Twilight. In this study in sub-
is a consistent piece of pure landscape. Often, dued tones the distribution of the light in the
as in the picture called A Summer Day, which background, with its reflection on the pasture in
represents a bit of scenery in the district of Alt the foreground, is very ably carried out, and the
Bunzlau, we have an apparently humdrum tract work as a whole is one which in its frank sincerity
of flat country, redeemed however, as in this case, is distinctly pleasing. It is not in keeping with
by some peculiar atmospheric effect which, as Engelmiiller's nature to descend to artifices for
295