Rocks, c. 1840

This oil study executed in a portrait format by Friedrich Gauermann (1807–1862) shows a vertical rock face with fallen boulders that takes up more than the entire left half of the picture. The rock formation is emphasized by a remarkable use of contrasts in lighting. In the background – in keeping with color perspective and aerial perspective – a mountainous landscape is hinted at in hardly differentiated shades of blue. Similar compositions can be found frequently in Gauermann’s oeuvre, especially in his depictions of animal fights and hunting scenes. This nature study is connected to his 1831 painting Stag, chased by a lynx. In the latter work, however, the artist pays closer attention to the depiction of the landscape in the background – high, snow-covered mountains, possibly inspired by a trip he took in the summer of 1831 to the Königssee lake, the Gasteinertal valley and the town of Hallstatt.

AGW, 2022