860 - Fritz Thate, view of the Brocken over an autumnal wooded valley with stream, Harz painter, landscape

Fritz Thate, view of the Brocken over an autumnal wooded valley with stream, Harz painter, landscape (1889 Leipzig to 1968 Goslar), oil/canvas, signed lower right "F. Thate", on the reverse the label of the art dealer "C. Klingebeil", 20th century, autumnal wooded valley with a view of the Brocken, a stream leads from the lower left into the centre, the banks with boulders and tufts of grass, on the left tall pines with red-brown trunks, in the middle ground deciduous trees in yellow and orange autumn foliage before dark spruce forest, on the right a meadow, in the background the elongated blue-grey summit dome with buildings, light blue sky with white cumulus clouds, condition commensurate with age, small backed area, partial craquelure, image 50.5x60 cm (HxW), framed, frame slightly chipped, frame width 5 cm Fritz Thate, born in Leipzig in 1889 and died in Goslar in 1968, was a landscape and postcard painter and became known as a Harz painter. In the 1920s he had a studio in Braunschweig. Characteristic of his landscapes is a gently winding path leading from the lower edge of the picture to the centre, usually framed by trees, together with reflections of light on the ground and a mountain in the background. The view of the Brocken runs through his work; between 1920 and 1930 the Munich publisher Hermann A. Wiechmann issued many of his motifs as picture postcards, including "Blick auf den Brocken" and "Brockenblick am Torfhaus im Harz".