Rocky Landscape with Sleeping Shepherd 1817

Philip Heinrich Dunker created this watercolor and graphite drawing titled, “Rocky Landscape with Sleeping Shepherd,” around the late 18th or early 19th century. Dominating the scene is the cavernous mouth of a grotto. The shepherd asleep in the foreground references the classical trope of pastoral innocence, but the cave hints at something darker and more mysterious. The motif of the grotto is prominent. Since antiquity, caves have been seen as a place of transition and transformation. We find them in mythological stories, from Plato’s cave to the cave in which Christ was born, representing the subconscious, the womb, the passage from darkness to light. Here, the artist contrasts the idyllic image of the sleeping shepherd with the shadow of the cave. Notice how Dunker sets the scene, layering light and shadow to create depth. The romanticized view of nature and the shepherd’s slumber evoke a deeper psychological space, a space where one’s dreams mix with the raw power of the natural world. This powerful dichotomy resurfaces time and time again in art history.