Skizzenbuch 1831 - 1832

drawing, paper, watercolor, ink

drawing

paper

watercolor

ink

romanticism

watercolor

This sketchbook was created by Carl Morgenstern in the 19th century. The book’s cover, weathered and mottled, offers a palimpsest of time, a surface that speaks volumes even before its pages are opened. The marbling effect, reminiscent of ancient techniques, carries echoes of the cosmos, reflecting humanity's age-old fascination with the macrocosm mirrored in the microcosm of everyday objects. Consider how the swirling patterns evoke the same sense of wonder as Renaissance depictions of the heavens. This motif is not merely decorative; it's a vessel of cultural memory, a subconscious nod to the cyclical nature of existence. The very act of opening the book becomes a ritual, connecting us to the artist's thoughts and sketches, and to the broader human quest for understanding and expression across time. The stains and wear of the cover, the weight of history, and the artist's hand.

Comments

stadelmuseum over 1 year ago

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In December 1831, Carl Morgenstern made his first drawing in the half-leather booklet with loops for slender pencils: he captured the trunk and branches of a weather-beaten fir tree with a pencil and then coloured it in subtle colours with a brush. Even before Morgenstern left for Munich in 1832 to study under the successful landscape painter Carl Rottmann, he recorded everything in this sketchbook that caught his eye: a hunt at Petterweil, a hunting party at Bonames, figure studies, variously dressed in traditional costume, conifers, but also such inconspicuous motifs as a house corner with large stones. There are also views of walks through the surroundings of Frankfurt, especially to Rödelheim and Hausen, and of the journey to Munich, with motifs near Bad Aibling, Lake Chiemsee, near Bad Reichenhall, Lake Starnberg near Seeshaupt and Iffeldorf. He also recorded relatively detailed compositional drafts for later paintings. On the sketchbook’s fourteenth page, he even included a drawing by his colleague Johann Gottlieb Prestel (1739‒1808), a well-known and respected painter of horses, who, like Morgenstern, was probably in Rödelheim in May 1832 (see the sketchbook Inv. SG 3078, Städel Museum).For a full sketchbook description, please see “Research”.