90 - Hans Thoma (1839 Bernau – Karlsruhe 1924), Hilly Landscape.

Hans Thoma (1839 Bernau – Karlsruhe 1924), Hilly Landscape. Oil and charcoal on cardboard. (18)86. Approx. 61 x 74 cm. Monogrammed and dated lower left. Thode, p. 242, top In the 1880s, Hans Thomas’s landscape art was in transition from realistic observation of nature to a symbolically charged ideal landscape—our painting certainly still belongs to the former category: The view extends over a rocky hilltop in the foreground to a gently undulating valley through which a paved path winds, yet the view is dominated by the rising, tree-covered hill with two crests, which, in this close-up, occupies nearly the entire picture and reveals only a small strip of the cloudy sky at the top. Its color scheme of rich blue and bright white—through which the base of the painting board repeatedly shows through—contrasts with the earthy brown tones of the hilly landscape. Even though the painting is not quite finished, it derives its essential charm from this color contrast. Thoma sketched the landscape directly onto the cardboard with a charcoal pencil, which he left visible as a design element in its own right—he applied the oil paint only very thinly, in a glazed, almost transparent layer, so that the charcoal lines show through —this created broken, earthy color nuances that were not applied smoothly but instead reveal an almost artisanal texture. This reflects an artistic philosophy that sought simple means of expression and naturalness even in landscape painting. Our painting may depict a view of the Böllental valley near his hometown of Bernau in the Black Forest, which Thoma visited time and again, yet his focus is not on topographical documentation but on landscape in general as a mental refuge in the face of increasing industrialization and urbanization in the second half of the 19th century. In these works, civilization is far removed; they symbolize rootedness and home, to which Thoma remained connected throughout his life. Dr. Peter Prange Exhibition: Sächsischer Kunstverein, Dresden (on the frame cover with the label); Thoma Exhibition. Paintings by Hans Thoma from a German private collection, exhibited in 1922 at the National-Galerie. Reflections and Catalog, Berlin 1922, p. 130, cat. no. 139; Hans Thoma 1839–1924. Commemorative Exhibition Marking the 100th Anniversary of His Birth, Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe 1939, p. 45, cat. no. 147. Provenance: Charlotte Schumm-Walter (1860–1947), Bonn; Elisabeth Rosenkranz-Schumm (1881–1974), Kreuznach (1922); Private collection, North Rhine-Westphalia. Taxation: subject to margin scheme (VAT: Margin Scheme).