"Thunderstorm in the Area of the Village Kaditz," Ernst Ferdinand Oehme, 1838.
Oehme (1797-1855) was a lesser-known German Romantic painter and illustrator, whose specialty was moody landscapes with architectural details.
Originally training to be a teacher, and working as an assistant tax collector, he became inspired by art and eventually entered the prestigious Dresden Academy. He became acquainted with many artists of the Romantic Era, including the dean of Romanticism, Caspar David Friedrich, who was a major influence on his work.
He traveled around Italy and the Alps, painting scenes there, and having a flirtation with the Nazarene Movement, a subset of Romanticism that emphasized religiosity. But by the 1830s he was moving away from that and doing more realistic works, like this one.
Here we have the river Elbe in German, winding by a village church. The storm clouds are overhead, the wind is obviously up, the river is rough and the boats are being tossed around. But in the center, although small, is the real Kaditz church, the eye of the hurricane, in a sense.
Oehme's work deserves grester scrutiny, I think.
From the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.
#Art #ErnstFerdinandOehme #Romanticism #Thunderstorm #Landscape #Drama
