Dobrowsky, Josef
Winter backyard, 1930
Oil on canvas
Signed and dated lower right
59 x 49 cm
framed
Josef Dobrowsky was considered a masterful painter of winter landscapes, which he painted mostly in an expressionist conception, working out very freely in coloration. However, the representational work shows a completely different and, in Dobrowsky's case, unusual aspect: the winter backyard is one of the few masterful examples of neo-Saxon painting in the artist's oeuvre. Already the motif indicates the other direction: The backyard is the real counter-design to the postcard view. In terms of painting, the snow here has no function as a light-bringer, but accentuates a small world that is depicted in shades of brown and green and is deliberately kept deserted. The symbol of a fragile world.
