Schütze, Wilhelm (1840-1898), Sunny Woodland Path

Wilhelm Schütze(1840 Kaufbeuren - 1898 Munich). Forest path. Oil on painting board, 30 x 24 cm (visible size), 31 x 26 cm (frame), signed lower left "Wilhelm Schütze".

- A brightly lit forest path as a space for imagination -

Pausing in the curve of a path, the viewer looks out over a wooded landscape. But instead of being able to visually delve into the details of the scenery, the near-sighted gaze encounters the materiality of the individual areas of colour that make up the pictorial representation. This does not, however, lead to a dissolution of the pictorial objects through colour. On the contrary, the specific liveliness of the woodland detail is nourished by the virtuoso, partially layered application of paint, whereby the visible brushstroke preserves the movement of its setting and activates it for the pictorial effect.
The landscape, painted in situ, is confined to the background of the painting, giving it an intimate quality. It is painted in a reduced, rather dark palette, characteristic of the Barbizon School, whose artists worked with light by means of dark colours and did not, as in late Impressionism, dissolve it in colour, thus negating it as a means of design. The charm of the picture lies in the contrast between the conifers on the left of the path, which are darkened to green-black, and the light that shines brightly in the sand of the path.

About the artist

Wilhelm Schütze studied under the Hungarian painter Alexander (Sándor) Wagner at the Munich Academy from 1859 and then lived in Munich as a freelance painter. He became known for his sensitive and humorous scenes of children in rural settings and for his landscape paintings.

"His faces and clothes are softly modelled, and his overall colouring is warm, subdued, yet luminous. In terms of painting technique, he is one of the best representatives of the 'Munich School of Painting' [...]".

Selection of public collections that own works by Wilhelm Schütze:

Neue Pinakothek München , Städtische Kunstsammlung Chemnitz.

Selected Bibliography

Friedrich von Boetticher: Malerwerke des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts. Beitrag zur Kunstgeschichte, Bd. 2, Hälfte 2: Saal - Zwengauer, Dresden 1901 (Nachdruck: Hofheim am Taunus, 1979).

Ulrich Thieme, Felix Becker: Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, Bd. 30, Leipzig 1936, S. 319.

Horst Ludwig: Münchner Maler im 19. Jahrhundert. Bd. 4: Saffer - Zwengauer, München 1983, S. 118-121.