Bäume am Rande eines sanften Abhangs 

Curator: Let’s turn our attention now to a compelling piece here at the Städel Museum; a work created with ink on paper by Franz Kobell entitled "Bäume am Rande eines sanften Abhangs" which translates to "Trees at the Edge of a Gentle Slope." Editor: I’m immediately drawn to the almost frantic energy in this landscape! There's a tension created by the density of lines. Curator: The sheer repetition of those lines; do they signify a need for detail, or perhaps a way to evoke movement within this scene? Editor: I see a story of persistence in the repetitive mark-making. Notice how the short, hurried lines build up the volumes of the trees and how even the negative space is activated by them, giving the drawing a palpable vibration. It feels more about the act of recording than the placidity of the observed place. Curator: A placidity disturbed by the almost calligraphic approach Kobell uses. I also think the lines create texture – can you see, perhaps even feel, the bark, the rustle of the leaves in some breeze that only exists within the image itself? Editor: Absolutely. It feels incomplete, not unfinished exactly, but perhaps like a fleeting thought he wanted to transcribe immediately, before it faded. Like, "oh, I feel the wind between the leaves and I need to write it down!" – almost as a writer would. What do you make of the composition itself? Curator: It guides the eye gently downwards and invites the viewer to reflect upon a sense of gentle melancholy as if contemplating a half-remembered scene, familiar yet distant. It speaks of memory, and echoes. Editor: Yes, melancholy is right! Now that you mention the memory aspect I feel as though he is trying to convey the essence of a place, like, distill a location down to its feelings, beyond a pure description. I see a lot of symbolic landscapes carrying feelings. This drawing gives off "sublime sadness," the kind you want to carry like a treasure. Curator: Well, yes... there's beauty in melancholy. Let’s keep that sentiment as we explore our next work, shall we?