Blooming lilac bush 

Philipp Rumpf made this oil on cardboard painting, Blooming Lilac Bush, in Germany, sometime in the mid-19th century. It’s an unassuming painting of nature. But think of it within the context of the art institutions of the time. The German art world, then, was beginning to coalesce around academies and museums that promoted history painting and portraiture as the highest forms of art. Landscape painting was considered lower in the hierarchy. While the artist had formal training at the Academy in Munich, this work is not concerned with history or formal portraiture. It celebrates nature in an intimate way. Perhaps Rumpf was making a subtle statement by focusing on the beauty of the everyday world, rather than the grand narratives of history or the social status of portraiture. To understand Rumpf's artistic choices, one would want to research the changing status of landscape painting in 19th-century Germany, examining exhibition records, art criticism, and the writings of artists themselves. Art is always shaped by the social and institutional contexts in which it is created and viewed.