Felsküste mit Leuchtturm, im Vordergrund drei Fischer 

Franz Kobell created this pen and brown ink drawing, titled "Rocky Coast with Lighthouse, with Three Fishermen in the Foreground" sometime in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. The sketch depicts a coastal scene where figures are engaging in their daily labor. Romanticism and the rise of landscape painting emphasized the awe-inspiring aspects of nature, but Kobell's work hints at a different perspective. Germany at the time was a patchwork of independent states, and institutions like the Städel Museum were just beginning to form public collections. How did artists picture the relationship between nature and culture in this moment? Kobell seems interested in the way that ordinary people are connected to the natural world, not as sublime spectacle, but as a source of work and sustenance. To understand more about the cultural meanings of landscape in this period, look to the writings of contemporary poets and philosophers. Consider also the history of German state-building and the growth of Frankfurt as a center for art and commerce.