River Landscape, 1916

This painting affords a view from high above onto a river winding its way between towering cliffs. A solitary sailboat animates the quiet scene. The German painter Josef Eberz (1880–1942) reduced natural forms to geometricizing lines, and concentrated his palette on few tones. He predominantly worked with black contours and red-green contrast. The green river, the red cliffs and the shadowy foreground invest the depiction with a sense of mystery and mysticism. Eberz studied painting in Munich under Franz Stuck (1863–1928), followed by studies at the Stuttgart Academy of Art, where he was a master student of Adolf Hölzel’s (1853–1934). This work reveals Eberz’s interest in color theories, Expressionism and Cubism.

AK, 2021