The City of Arnberg in the Oberpfalz 1823

Carl Heinzmann rendered “The City of Arnberg in the Oberpfalz” in watercolor on paper sometime between the late 18th and early 19th century. Heinzmann’s depiction of Arnberg is both picturesque and infused with elements of the Romantic Movement, which valued emotion, nature, and the past. Take note of the traditional clothing of the two figures in the foreground, the woman in a long red skirt, the man in a dark coat and hat. They are onlookers like us, yet their cultural and class identity is markedly different. The sheep, symbols of rural life and Christian allegories, add to the pastoral setting. Heinzmann’s choice to include these figures positions the viewer as a kind of tourist, invited to consume a landscape that is also a cultural artifact. Consider how this image idealizes rural life, but also flattens the realities of labor and social stratification. The soft brushstrokes and gentle colors evoke a sense of nostalgia, perhaps obscuring the complex realities of early 19th-century Germany. It leaves us to consider whose stories are amplified and whose are erased.