945 - Harz painter, three views, Brocken, Devil's Bridge in Bode Valley, Harz lake, 2nd half 20th century

Harz painter, three views, Brocken, Devil's Bridge in Bode Valley, Harz lake, 2nd half 20th century Oil on hardboard, 2nd half 20th century, 1) wide view into the Harz landscape with the Brocken, in the foreground spruces and a path, unsigned, 2) Harz landscape with the Devil's Bridge in the Bode Valley near Thale, the wooden bridge over the mountain stream before a rock face, unsigned, 3) lake landscape in the Harz with a wooded headland, on the right a conifer, signed lower left scratched into the paint (not deciphered), each with label "Meyer Halberstadt" verso, good condition, soiled, image each 34.5x17.5 cm (HxW), each framed, frame width 1.5 cm At 1141 metres, the Brocken is the highest and at the same time the most famous mountain of the Harz, on around 300 days a year its summit is shrouded in cloud or fog. According to legend, the witches ride on broomsticks to the Blocksberg on Walpurgis Night. The Devil's Bridge lies in the Bode Valley not far from Thale, where the Bode flows between rock faces several hundred metres high; according to legend, the devil offered his help with the construction and demanded in return the first soul to cross the bridge, whereupon the master builder sent a goat across. As early as 1841 an aquatint "Die Teufelsbrücke bei der Rosstrappe" by Johannes Hausheer was published. Views such as these stand in the tradition of the Harz painters, who captured the landscape and architecture of the mountains in the 19th and 20th centuries.