Landscape with Broken Tree c. 1800

This is an etching by Martin von Molitor, called ‘Landscape with Broken Tree.’ The broken tree is an interesting feature, as it suggests the romantic idea of nature as wild and untamed. Molitor was Austrian, and landscape etchings like this one were popular among collectors in Vienna at the turn of the nineteenth century. They reflect a growing interest in nature, in the face of industrial and urban expansion. Molitor here presents nature as a space of labor and family, with a woman and child gathering wood in the lower-left corner. Note the sharp contrast between the crisp foreground detail and the blurred background, achieved through the etching technique of layering thin lines. It's a reminder that landscape isn't just about what we see but also about how artists use visual codes to shape our perception of it. By researching the social context of landscape art, and studying the techniques used by artists like Molitor, we can learn a lot about how people in the past understood their relationship to the natural world.