Fotoreproductie van een schilderij van Friedrich Perlberg, voorstellend de Kolossen van Memnon in Thebe before 1905

This is a reproduction of a painting of the Colossi of Memnon in Thebes, and was likely made with watercolors or gouache on paper, although the artist is unknown. I wonder what Friedrich Perlberg thought while painting this scene? The colossi are rendered in muted, earthy tones. You can almost feel the coarse texture of the ancient stone and the unrelenting heat. The sky, rendered in soft washes of yellow and orange, evokes both the beginning and the end of the day. It’s like that feeling when the day stretches out before you, but the sun is already setting. The painting is small, yet it speaks of something massive. I can imagine Perlberg, trying to capture the magnitude of the colossi, their monumentality and quiet presence. The figures in the foreground are like tiny dashes of paint, their gestures rendered with broad strokes. I feel an artist’s affinity with Perlberg. It’s easy to see how his paintings might have inspired countless other artists to explore different ways of picturing history.