Deadwood in the Forest, 1882 - 1885

In the painting Deadwood in the Forest by Emil Jakob Schindler (1842–1892) from around 1882/85, an unspectacular pile of brushwood becomes the dominant pictorial subject. The artist, though, is not interested in a documentary, realistic rendering of this small excerpt of nature, but rather in the atmospheric articulation and the color impressions, which he makes to serve his emotional sensation. Sparkling up amid the concentration of muted browns, grays, and blues are small blots of pure red and yellow. In his sketchy, cursory painting style, Schindler reflects his experience of nature and makes the unassuming motif undergo a poetic transmogrification. It was under the influence of the Barbizon School that the founder of Austrian Atmospheric Impressionism had turned away from the heroic alpine painting of his teacher Albert Zimmermann (1809–1888) and towards the paysage intime, simple everyday motifs of nature.

2021, AGW