1007 - Martin Wirth, Gnarled weeping willow at the Ütschenteich, Darlingerode, tree study, edge of the Harz

Martin Wirth, Gnarled weeping willow at the Ütschenteich, Darlingerode, tree study, edge of the Harz (1939 – 2017 Ilsenburg), coloured chalk on paper, signed "Wirth" lower left, titled verso "Uralte Trauerweide am Ütschenteich in Darlingerode Harz", gnarled willow trunk with bulging branch base and dense green foliage, further slender trunks on the left, behind them a house with tiled roof, meadow in the foreground, good condition commensurate with age, smudging, image 48x36 cm (HxW) The Ütschenteich lies on the edge of the Harz between Darlingerode and Wernigerode, surrounded by woodland; monks of the nearby Himmelpforten monastery probably created it as a fish pond in the 13th century, the monastery itself being plundered in 1525 during the Peasants' War. The pond, some 180 m long, drains via the Sandtalbach towards the Ilse and is today protected as a natural monument. The pond lay in the draughtsman's neighbourhood: Martin Wirth lived in Darlingerode (today part of Ilsenburg), sat on the local council there and later on the Ilsenburg town council and, as a teacher and landscape designer, created among other things the Pfad der Sinne at the Drübecker Rohrteich.