River landscape 1896

Curator: Here we have Philipp Röth's "River Landscape," created in 1896. The piece, currently residing at the Städel Museum, is composed using charcoal, chalk, pastel and gouache on paper. Editor: Immediately, I am struck by the mood. It feels like a hushed, almost melancholic scene. The tonality is muted, creating a sense of quiet contemplation. Curator: Röth’s landscapes, though formally aligning with impressionistic and post-impressionistic approaches to capturing a sense of place, are tinged with a deep undercurrent of Romanticism. He deliberately utilizes the landscape to evoke emotional responses. We can also note the social context, Röth’s landscapes came at a time of increasing industrialization and urbanization. The subject of the drawing provides viewers with a reminder of the pre-industrial, rural environments that were in the process of vanishing, appealing to cultural longing. Editor: I see the water mirroring the sky, heavy with clouds. Reflections like that often speak to a duality, an inner world mirroring the external. Are the obscured cows in the background representing innocence and nature? Perhaps a reference to simpler, agrarian times? Curator: I find Röth's artistic choices really compelling from a historical perspective. The turn towards a less polished aesthetic –the very visible marks of charcoal and pastel– represent an evolution away from earlier notions of artistic mastery. He embraces the imperfect, using his medium expressively. Editor: There is a rawness there, that absolutely allows one to tap into a primordial sense of peace. He simplifies the forms, yet imbues them with so much symbolic weight; the long grass is archetypically about hidden aspects of our lives. Curator: It makes you consider how societal shifts impact how artists depict familiar subjects. That the seemingly straightforward image has all these various complex roots… Editor: Indeed. This piece echoes of times gone by, it lingers in the memory with an odd intensity, much like half-forgotten dreams do.