Quellnymphe (Kachelentwurf) 

This is Hans Thoma’s sketch “Quellnymphe (Kachelentwurf)”, or "Nymph of the Well (Tile Design)". Thoma was born in Germany in 1839, lived through German unification, and died in 1924 just as the roaring twenties were getting underway. Thoma's artistic identity was formed by a desire to move away from academic painting towards something more grounded in the everyday experience of the German people. You can see in this design, the turn away from purely religious iconography to a more domestic scene. He depicts a nymph with a child surrounded by cherubic figures. A man is bent over the well she is guarding. Thoma elevates the traditional roles of motherhood while bringing a sense of the divine to the most quotidian task of collecting water. The emotional depth of the mother figure draws us into this intimate scene. Thoma navigates traditional representations while creating a more accessible narrative, connecting us to both the historical context and the personal dimensions of the artwork.