Mountain Stream with Boulders, 1888/90

The painting Mountain Stream with Boulders was probably made near the Saut du Doubs waterfall in French-speaking Switzerland, where Carl Schuch (1846–1903) spent several summers starting in 1886. In the narrow picture perspective, possibly inspired by contemporary photography, the artist depicts the boulder formations between which the thin mountain stream can be made out by the reflexes of the spray. Some deep-blue brushstrokes indicate reflections of the sky, which, however, is not visible in the picture because of the top view. Schuch concentrates entirely on the differentiated representation of the color values of the heaped-up small and larger stones. In a sensually palpable manner, he expresses differences of materiality—between sunlit and lying in the shade, between cool and warm, or between dry and wet.

AGW, 2021