Sainfoin Field I. Study, c. 1893

When Theodor von Hörmann (1840–1895) left Paris in 1890, he settled in the Moravian town of Znaim an der Thaya (present-day Znojmo). The rural seclusion inspired the artist to create countless landscape and nature studies. In 1893 he started to intently explore the motif of fields of sainfoin, an important food plant. Hörmann was especially interested in capturing the intensity of the plant colors with paint loosely applied with a spatula, and to harmoniously combine this manner of painting with the geometrical composition of the fields. The studies and paintings created in this way are strongly reminiscent of the tulip fields rendered by Claude Monet (1840–1926) and of Vincent van Gogh’s (1853–1890) paintings of Auvers-sur-Oise, which Hörmann had seen and studied in Paris. The artist continuously refined the Impressionist style he had developed in France, and with his works created during his first years in Znaim seamlessly joined the transition from Impressionism to early Expressionism. With his vividly colored impressions, the Austrian painter played his part in the departure into Modernism.

AS, 2021