3353
Hauptmann, Karl
1880 Freiburg i.Br. - 1947 Todtnau.
Red sandstone bridge over a creek during summer.
1908 - 1914. Oil on canvas. Signed lower right. Verso on the stretcher badly legible inscribed «[...] Sommer ([...] summer)».
H 31,5, W 48 cm (support). Framed.
A red sandstone bridge crosses the cool waters of a creek in the midst of richly vegetated, shady banks. One can almost feel the gentle breeze playing with the hanging branches of the willows, so convincingly did the legendary Black Forest painter capture the concentrated essence of a lovely, sun-filled summer day in this atmospheric work. The painting dates from a relatively early creative phase of the artist, the so-called «Freiburg period» in the years immediately before the outbreak of the First World War. Although the idyllic motif of the reddish bridge is rather an isolated case in Hauptmann's œuvre, the meditative serenity and balanced tranquillity emanating from its picturesque sight already hint at the wildly romantic conception of nature in his later landscapes filled with rough coniferous forests.
Authentication: We would like to thank Dr. Ruth Hötzel-Dickel, Freiburg i.Br., for the authentication via E-Mail, based on photos, 02.04.2021.
Catalogue raisonné: Hötzel-Dickel Go80.

Condition report