Between Poetry and Reality

An exhibition at Freiburg's Augustinermuseum titled Zwischen Poesie und Wirklichkeit commemorates the centenary of the death of Hans Thoma (1839-1924), a painter from Bernau in the Black Forest. He is known and appreciated for his unmistakable landscape and genre paintings but was recently criticized for his closeness to ethnic and nationalist positions.

The exhibition focuses on Thoma's graphic work. After discovering printmaking, he became a master in this technique, culminating in his breakthrough as late as 1890.. The highlight of his career was his appointment as director of the Grand Ducal Picture Gallery and the Academy of Art in Karlsruhe in 1899.

But let's start with two paintings. The first one is a realistic portrait of Grand Duke Frederick I, the liberal ruler of Baden, who had supported Thoma from early on.

Frederick I, Grand Duke of Baden (1909). As usually, click to enlarge.

The oil painting, begun during the duke's lifetime, was only completed two years after his death. Frederick wears a uniform decorated with the Iron Cross. In the background, looking through a window, the landscape of Lake Constance is shown.

Ocean Awakening (Sea Lark, 1893)

The next painting shows a female fish centaur welcoming the day with a morning song like a lark. The hybrid creature has a human torso, horse legs, and a fish tail. Thoma gave the centaur the facial features of his wife, Cela.

Let us continue chronologically. As many of the Germans of his generation, Thoma venerated Richard Wagner.

Valkyrie (Brunhilde 1895)

Cosima Wagner commissioned Thoma to design the costumes for the 1896 performance of Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen. The costumes were intended not to reconstruct the early Middle Ages but rather underline the myth's timelessness. So Brunhilde is dressed in Thoma's costume and wears a whimsical dragon helmet.

Siegfried, 1898

Siegfried presents his glistening sword. He just killed the dragon lying at his feet. Brightness exaggerates the hero's body.

Christ and Peter on the Water (Wall Decoration, 1901)

While Jesus walks safely on the water, Peter, doubtful, threatens to sink. This episode from St. Matthew's gospel encourages Christians to hold on to their faith even in high waves.

Birth of Christ, 1903

In this scene Thoma draws on old German models by Cranach and Hohlbein. Christ is the light of the world, The mice in the straw are the artist's addition.

The Wanderer, 1903

Portray of a sweaty wanderer climbing the heights of Thoma's beloved Black Forest.

A Pair of Reapers, 1903

A farmer and his wife walk through a cornfield. The two reapers stare ahead, carrying their working tools on their shoulders. Such Blut und Boden (blood and soil) depictions recently placed Thoma in the vicinity of Nazi art, although the Third Reich only came into being in 1933. Red Baron still remembers pictures of this kind in his school reader.

The Sower (1897)

An even earlier graphic, from 1897, presents sowing as a sacred act. The sower's figure becomes monumentalized and staged as a model of a national ethnology, a symbol of new Germanness.

Evening Calm (Master Sheet, 1907)

In the twilight of the evening sun, master and dog observe their surroundings.

Old Age and Death, 1915

There is a reaper called Death. Thoma presents the unpredictability and omnipresence of death in the classical form of a skeleton wearing a scythe. The Old Reaper has not yet come for "Thoma" passing him, but does he hurry after the child?

Thoma's Portrait Photo (1925) autographed by the artist.

This document was produced on the occasion of the City of Freiburg commemorating Thomas' death. In addition to Hugo Erfurth's portrait photo, the facsimile shows an excerpt from Thomas' handwritten letter from 1919, in which he expresses his thanks for being awarded honorary citizenship:

Freiburg, the Black Forest capital

In the future, the city of Freiburg will be a pearl among German cities, a safe haven of German style and custom, a rallying point of the Black Forest, a center of the Allemannic tribe, where religion, science and art flourish, filled with the German spirit that will imperishably outlast time. It lies on a gorgeous spot on earth, close to the kingdom of heaven. God will protect it,

Hans Thoma

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