Carl Gustav Carus - Erinnerung an eine bewaldete Insel der Ostsee (Eichen am Meer) - 1834/35

    

Carus was, in the best sense of the word, an amateur artist and a self-taught painter, yet possessed far greater artistic power than many colleagues in their main profession. He painted this grand and primitive large-scale landscape scene in the winter of 1834/35, recalling his 1819 trip to Rügen, following in Friedrich's footsteps: "Even in these gray days, I occasionally reserve a lunch hour to work in my painter's room... on mighty oaks that now attract me like a reawakened youthful love." He vividly remembered a day trip to the island of Vilm southeast of Putbus, whose originality and remoteness from civilization fascinated Carus even in retrospect: "I can say I have hardly ever again had this feeling of pure, beautiful, and solitary natural life as I did then on this small island, which no one else tends to see when visiting Rügen. How picturesque the freshest vegetation of the bushes presses itself over the rocks heaped up on the shore, how undisturbed and venerable oaks and beeches have grown to an unusual size! ... In short, wherever you looked, rich, robust primeval nature of the North!" The magnitude of the impression and symbolic potency is juxtaposed here with the quiet contemplation of the landscape. The parabolic curve of the hill with the ancient, storm-tossed oaks and the expansive image format suggest the idea that a real piece of historically formed Earth is being brought into focus.

Source: Albertinum