Chapter 4 | WORKS OF ART

MOUNTAIN LANDSCAPES

Just like mountaineers, painters can also be fascinated by mountain landscapes. An example is the painting ‘The Watzmann’ by the German painter Caspar David Friedrich from 1825. The Watzmann is a real existing mountain in southern Germany. There were no photos at that time, so Friedrich first stood had to draw in the open air for a long time before making the final painting in his studio. Like the mountain landscape in chapter 1, the painting begins at the front with lower hills. From this spot we look further and further up to the snow-capped mountain in the distance. It is probably still a very long walk before you even reach the foot of the Watzmann.

STORM AT SEA!

Many pieces or ‘marines’ have been painted in the Netherlands during  the 17th and 18th centuries. Long sea trade voyages to China and Indonesia were extremely dangerous at the time, hence paintings depicting spectacular waves, mighty cumulus clouds and ships in distress were very popular. In the first painting at least three ships are fighting fiercely with the wind and the waves. You can also see a part of a broken mast floating in the foreground. The cumulus clouds are overwhelming as the sunlight mesmerizes the heads of the waves.

Storm at sea, Johannes Schotel, 18^e century

In the second painting, the crew of the ship on the right is already sitting in a lifeboat, while sailors on the ship on the left have climbed the masts, risking their lives, to save the ship.

Storm at sea, W. van de Velde, 17^e century

The most famous wave in art history is undoubtedly that of the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai from 1831. An impressive wave of claw-like foam is about to crash on three boats. In the sky you can vaguely see the outline of cumulus clouds and in the distance is the snowy peak of Japan’s Fuji mountain. Because it is not a painting but a woodcut, there are several prints of it, including one in the Metropolitan museum of art in New York and the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.

‘The Great Wave off the Kanagawa Coast’, woodcut, 1831, 26 x 38 cm.