Lunch (“The Soup”, version II), 1910

In his oil painting Lunch or The Soup, Albin Egger-Lienz (1868–1926) sought to elevate the reality of the lives of the peasant population in Tyrol to a monumental and universal level: Three men and two women, dressed in plain, rural attire, are sitting around a heavy table, leaning forward in a calm, thoughtful, composed and introspective manner, eating their invigorating meal in quiet concentration. With his planar, formalistic and three-dimensional style and reticent colors, Egger-Lienz formulated the figures more as types than as individuals. They are bearers of something universal and timeless, and appear removed from concrete reality. The shown segment of space is illuminated like a stage. Breaking up the contained interior with its slow-motion tranquility, Egger-Lienz afforded a view of a small section of grass and the lower part of a log cabin through the window. The simplicity of the scene is composed of contrasts between light and dark and cohesive forms. As with other pictorial themes, Egger-Lienz thoroughly explored this subject in his oeuvre, as 25 extant variations testify.

MH, 2021