Landscape with Aggstein Castle Ruin, 1926

Josef Dobrowsky (1889–1964) presents this rural scene in the mystic darkly light of a storm coming up. Dilapidating stone walls and the wind-bent leafless tree are basked in a red glow in Landscape with Aggstein Castle Ruin. Like a frame, they enclose on the left and right the river meandering through the center of the picture. Inspired in color and motif by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525/30–1569), the works is distinguished by its expressiveness and visible brushstroke. The life-giving fertile land below the ruin is veiled in darkness. An inconspicuous person is standing, with no shelter, by the handrail leading to the little hill looking toward the horizon and the approaching menacing thunderstorm.

RR, 2021