The Blackberry Feast 1872

Curator: What a delicate gathering of images. My eyes feel like they are tracing wind-blown blossoms on the page. Editor: And yet they are sketches for figures, done in 1872 by Otto Scholderer. It’s a pencil drawing on paper called “The Blackberry Feast.” It lives here in the Städel Museum. What's striking to you? Curator: It’s the gentleness. Each of these nascent portraits—a child mostly—exists like a breath. The artist isn't imposing but coaxing them into being. As a viewer I get the sense they might simply dissolve if I exhale too strongly! It is a far cry from a posed formal study! Editor: Indeed. Scholderer was part of a generation wrestling with the legacies of academic art. He had formal training but also an eye for modern realism. This wasn't just about idealized representation; it was capturing life as it was lived. The blackberry feast itself, or preparations for it, is part of this casual domesticity. Curator: “Casual” feels spot on. I also see something almost… tender in its incompleteness. It hints at process; an open, generous kind of seeing, which is very compelling! Editor: Yes, the medium reinforces that impression. Unlike a painting, the pencil sketch feels immediate, more like a thought process laid bare. It makes one consider the social function of this drawing. It likely was not meant to be viewed outside of the artists' inner circle. Curator: Knowing it wasn’t necessarily for public display gives it this sense of privileged access, a feeling that the artist allows us into an intimate exchange of creative consideration. The looseness of line suggests constant searching, like these images were fugitive or quickening; moments of presence as transient as the day itself. Editor: This is what makes works such as this enduring; It shows that even informal work holds significant merit, despite the artist having social constraints within 19th-century traditional artwork. Curator: So well said! I now feel I understand how fleeting yet essential “The Blackberry Feast” remains in this space; the sketches almost feel so fragile! Editor: Yes, and recognizing its importance outside academic constrictions makes its delicacy so special.