Wilhelm Feldmann

Forest landscape bathed in sunlight / - The Monumentality of the Forest -

c. 1900

Frederick Vezin (1859 Torresdale Philadelphia - 1933 Düsseldorf), Autumn Landscape in the Sunlight, oil on canvas, mounted on cardboard, 32 x 41 cm (inside measurement), 44 x 51 cm (frame), signed and dates lower right "F. Vezin. [19]05". - Cardboard slightly curved, small inconspicuous retouch at the centre of the upper edge of the picture. About the artwork Although the painting appears to be a sketch, Frederick Vezin considered it to be a finished work of art, as evidenced by his signature on the lower right. And it is precisely this sketchy quality that leads to an understanding of the painting, which was certainly created in the landscape itself: the natural phenomena were to be depicted artistically at the moment of their observation. This is not done by meticulously sketching nature, but - and here Vezin follows the teaching of French Impressionism - by illustrating nature in its visual fullness. The artist's eye is, as it were, immersed in the visuality of nature, which is made visible by his hand. The painting is therefore not a reflection of the landscape, but its artistic intensification. This intensification also includes the fact that the foreground of the painting - corresponding to the field of vision - eludes a detail-oriented close-up view. Instead, the spatula-like application of paint, the vertical structure of which corresponds to the structure of the floral growth, has the effect of making nature tangible in its colourful substance. At the same time, the foreground, which remains indeterminate in its concrete objectivity, creates an atmospheric space that connects with the actual protagonist of the picture, the group of trees, which flares up in shades of red and brown. Here, too, the leaves are more speckled than clearly outlined. It is precisely this 'sketchiness' that opens up a visual experience that makes the landscape accessible in its visual fullness, thus revealing its essence. In addition to this abundance, the landscape is presented as a structure of order in that the composition of the picture makes the composition of the landscape visible. For example, the group of trees forms a distinct dark green shadow, which is repeated in the shadows cast by the trees behind it. A patterned diagonal axis is created in the picture, which is composed in this way by the landscape itself. Strictly speaking, this is a cultivated landscape: a fence at the bottom and a low stone wall at the top, running from left to right, are two elements that also have a strong compositional effect. And on the top of the hill, a stone house is embedded in the landscape as the brightest surface in the picture. Nature and culture here form a harmonious synthesis, giving the painting an Arcadian touch. In order to give the landscape as much space as possible, the horizon line is raised, but the design of the sky is also crucial. The clouds, combined with the shapes of the trees, create a bright blue sky. To the European eye, such a sky is reminiscent of a summer landscape. Accordingly, within the seasonal cycle, the blue sky is reserved for summer, and French Impressionism is also primarily an ode to summer. In Vezin's painting, however, the brilliant blue sky stands above an autumnal landscape, some of the trees even defoliated. It can therefore be assumed that the painting was made not in Europe but in the United States, and that it illustrates the proverbial Indian summer, making Frederick Vezin a pioneer of American landscape painting. About the artist Frederick Vezin was the son of a French immigrant to the United States and a German-born mother. This predestined him to promote artistic exchange between the old and new worlds. Having spent part of his schooling in Germany, in 1876, at the age of 20, he enrolled at the Düsseldorf Academy of Art, where he studied with Peter Janssen the Elder, Eduard von Gebhardt and Wilhelm Sohn, among others. He graduated in 1883, settled in Munich and returned to Düsseldorf in 1895, where he lived until his death in 1933. A native of the United States, he travelled to the country frequently and became a popular portrait and society painter. His artistic talent, however, was most evident in his landscape paintings. Trained in French Impressionism, he developed a virtuoso use of colour and a free brushwork that remained tied to the landscape motif, opening up the landscape itself in a new way. Frederick Vezin turned his attention primarily to the landscape of his homeland, becoming a pioneer of modern American landscape...

Jan Hillebrand Wijsmuller (1855 Amsterdam - 1925 ibid.), Late Summer River Landscape, oil on canvas, relined, 34 x 56 cm (inside measurement), 43 x 64 cm (frame), signed J[an] H[illebrand] Wijsmuller at lower right. - in good condition, the frame with isolated bumped spots - Realistic Impression - About the artwork The panoramic landscape format shows a river landscape, with the course of the river, which curves to the right, leading the eye into the depths of the picture and tempting it to continue the landscape in the imagination beyond the visible area. At the same time, however, the fact that the landscape is not visible through the bend in the river focuses our gaze on the entirety of the landscape depicted, without prompting us to focus on distant details. Accordingly, the brushstroke is not designed to render details with realistic precision. In the front left area of the river there is even a completely free brushwork, trained by Impressionism, which nevertheless remains committed to representational and convincingly suggests the movement of the water. Regardless of the distance of the observer, the entire picture is painted with the same broad brushstroke, so that the landscape is given as an impression. And yet this impression is not ephemeral, as in the case of French Impressionism, to put it exaggeratedly, but reveals to us the essence of the landscape in all its richness. This is why the Dutch variant of Impressionism is always also a realism, although the pictures appear less progressive, but still contain a dimension of landscape painting that is lost with progress. In the impression, the reality of the landscape is revealed, and this happens as we experience the landscape in the visual impression. Wijsmuller does not depict houses or people in order to allow the experience of the landscape to fully unfold. The experience is determined first and foremost by the river, which does not flow into the picture from our point of view, but towards us. Where the river begins to bend, the water is churned by a rapids. Toward us, the riverbed widens and the water comes to rest, covering the entire width of the foreground like a mirror. The stillness of the water corresponds to the evening mood of the late summer landscape, in which the warm tones of the evening light blend with the yellow and brown tones of the plants. A gentle, almost idyllic reality, carried by the brushstroke, yet animated by a liveliness that is also made visible by the brushstroke. The broad, dynamically placed brushstrokes evoke the movement of the treetops and animate even the immobile reeds, while the trunks on the right bank, executed in virtuoso white strokes that seem like markings, make the sunlight shine. On the other bank, a carpet of light also spreads out, its energetic effect again expressed in the brushstroke. The dynamic of the landscape is further enhanced by the complementary color contrasts between the greens, yellows, and browns on the one hand and the blue of the all-encompassing sky on the other. A contrast that is intensified by the reflection in the water. The evening coming to rest of the landscape is thus at the same time an all-encompassing contrasting and yet in itself harmonious movement. This reality becomes accessible to us as an experience in the impression of the landscape. About the artist Jan Hillebrand Wijsmuller entered the Royal Academy of Arts in Amsterdam in 1876 and studied under the innovative Professor August Allebé, who was famous for the Amsterdam Impressionism, also known as the Allebé School. In 1877, Wijsmuller transferred to the Hague Academy of Art, and thus to the Hague School, and then completed his studies at the Brussels Academy of Art. Returning to the Netherlands, Wijsmuller opened his own studio in Amsterdam. In 1883 he won the prestigious Young Artist Award, donated by Willink van Collen, which made Wijsmuller a well-known and sought-after artist. Wijsmuller was a member of the Societät Arti et Amicitiae Amsterdam and the Pulchri Studio in The Hague. Wijsmuller belongs to the second generation of the Hague School. While Vincent van Gogh described the protagonists of the first generation to his brother Theo as "the great gray people," the second generation, and Wijsmuller in particular, used a much more colorful palette. His oeuvre makes him a major player in Dutch Impressionism...

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