1238 - THOMA, HANS

THOMA, HANS 1839 Bernau–1924 Karlsruhe Title: "Blühende Kirschbäume bei Gardone". Date: 1897. Technique: Oil on card. Measurement: 78 x 67.5cm. Notation: Monogrammed (ligature) and dated lower right: HTh 97. Reverse: On the panel several old and torn labels. Frame: Framed. Three places and one landscape play a decisive role in the life and work of the painter Hans Thoma: first, Munich, which had a formative influence on his artistic development; then Frankfurt am Main, where the artist lived for over twenty years; but especially Karlsruhe, where he first studied, was temporarily rejected for his works—and, beginning in 1899, received the highest recognition as director of the Kunsthalle. He received this recognition largely for his landscape depictions of the Black Forest, the region where Thoma was born and which he portrayed in numerous works. His landscapes are characterized by a clarity of line combined with a freshness of color; they radiate a calm, almost idyllic atmosphere with a poetic quality. They reveal a deep connection to his homeland and a fidelity to nature that evokes a sense of timelessness. This painting was created shortly before his appointment to the Karlsruhe Kunsthalle; rendered in vibrant spring colors, it depicts the first delicate blossoms in a landscape near Gardone on Lake Garda. The two goats in the foreground bring life to the otherwise deserted dream garden. Here, Thoma displays his distinctive painting style, in which he combines the realism of the Barbizon School with the mysticism of Böcklin’s works. The clarity of the landscape depiction is overshadowed by a sense of grandeur and an almost fairy-tale-like impression, as found in many of his Black Forest paintings. Thomas’s paintings struck a chord with the spirit of the times and brought him his first successes beginning in the late 1870s. With the monographic exhibition of his works at the Munich Kunstverein in 1890, he celebrated his definitive breakthrough and had risen from the humble circumstances of his upbringing to achieve personal prosperity. In Frankfurt, Thoma found a lifelong friend and patron in Henry Thode, the director of the Städel Art Institute. As early as 1909, Thode published a catalog of Thoma’s works, in which our painting is also listed and illustrated. He describes Thomas’s paintings as a counter-vision to Impressionism, noting that a unique expression of the soul stands out in their poetic, musical style of representation—an interpretation that, however, would later be exaggerated and misused as “German” art. Over the decades, his paintings have fallen into obscurity and are only slowly coming back into the spotlight, as evidenced not least by the growing demand for Thomas’s timeless works. Provenance: - Private ownership, Germany; Sotheby’s auction, Munich, 6 December 1994, lot 173. Literature: H. Thode (ed.): Thoma. Des Meisters Gemälde in 874 Abbildungen. (Klassiker der Kunst, volume 15), Stuttgart and Leipzig 1909, p. 402 with ill. Estimated shipping costs for this lot: The lot is unsuitable for parcel shipping. Transport only by shipping company after consultation following the auction. additional shipping insurance Shipping insurance up to total invoice amount of 25,000 Euros: max. 41.65 Euro over a total invoice amount of 25,000 Euros: 1.8 o/oo USA by individual arrangement after the auction. #Hans Thoma #Karlsruher Malerschule #Realism #Symbolism #Germany #19th C. #Landscape #Animals #Paintings.