791 - Wilhelm Streckfuss, Driburg/Harz, village view with timber-framed granary, watercolour 1887

Wilhelm Streckfuss, Driburg/Harz, village view with timber-framed granary, watercolour 1887 (1817 Merseburg – 1896 Berlin), watercolour/cardboard, inscribed 'W. Streckfuss Nachlass' lower right. On the reverse inscribed in pencil 'Driburg/Harz 5/1887'. A wide view across a village in the valley floor: red tiled roofs, a timber-framed granary and barns lie among fruit trees and gardens, at the left of the foreground a board fence and a stack of timber, at the right a young tree nursery on a light green meadow; a grey column of smoke rises from the centre of the village. Behind it tiered wooded ranges of hills, at the right edge a slope with fields and rows of trees. The sky wide and light in blue-grey and ochre. Age-appropriate good condition, slightly stained. Image 25 x 41 cm (HxW), mount, behind glass, framed, frame bumped, overall 51.5 x 64 cm (HxW). Alongside history, portrait and genre paintings, Wilhelm Streckfuss produced landscape watercolours over several decades, laid down directly from nature while travelling. The Harz was among his recurring destinations. Sheets from his estate regularly bear an inscription or stamp added by another hand and reached the market only after his death in 1896. Characteristic of his landscapes is the clear perspectival construction, which goes back to his long years of teaching perspective.