Thunderstorm landscape with rider 

Karl Lessing painted this landscape with rider in oils, capturing a scene dominated by a brewing storm and a lone figure on horseback. The most striking motif is the towering birch tree, its weeping branches a symbol of melancholy and transformation, standing against the dramatic sky. Consider the birch, once sacred to Germanic tribes, a tree of life and renewal, now caught in a tempest. We find similar arboreal symbolism stretching back to classical antiquity, reappearing in Romantic poetry as a reflection of human emotion. Here, Lessing imbues the tree with a psychological weight. The rider, dwarfed by the landscape, becomes a symbol of humanity's struggle against the forces of nature, reminiscent of Caspar David Friedrich's wanderers. This image powerfully engages viewers on a subconscious level, echoing the perennial human drama of confronting mortality and the sublime indifference of nature. It reminds us that symbols are not static, they evolve, resurface, and transform across time, mirroring our own changing perceptions and emotional states.