Landscape on the Upper Rhine

Details

Nicht bei Thode.

Provenienz:
Paul Hartmann (?);
danach in süddeutschem Familienbesitz.

Description

With painterly foresight, Thoma guides the viewer’s gaze over the gentle hilly landscape of a river valley that winds its way into the background. In their simplicity, Thoma’s landscapes invite us to reflect and pause, suddenly nothing is random any more, everything seems to be subordinated to a higher meaning. Here, too, the viewer initially imagines he is looking at a sequence of bends in the Rhine, thinks he recognises towers and the meandering course of the river, only to realise once again that this is an idealised landscape reminiscent of an untouched Arcadia. The white spotted sea of flowers in the foreground only turns out to be a flock of sheep at second glance. On the left, however, the shepherd couple have settled on a hill overlooking the meandering river as far as the horizon. Above all, however, it is once again Thoma’s colour palette that lends the summer landscape its very own magic: whether as a pure blue outline, a watery light blue or as green mixed with yellow for the lush meadows, the countless nuances of blue that Thoma repeatedly draws on are revealed here. Thoma’s river landscape is the image of a pre-modern idyll that invites the viewer to tie up his boat, get out and rest, if only for a brief moment.