Rocky landscape 

Curator: This is a "Rocky Landscape", a pen and ink drawing by Franz Kobell, part of the Städel Museum's collection. It captures a rugged, natural scene through delicate linework. Editor: My first thought? Restlessness. There’s something unsettled in those scribbled lines, like the whole landscape is vibrating with potential energy, ready to shift. It’s exciting, a little dizzying. Curator: That sense of energy aligns with the Romantic sensibilities Kobell engaged. The sublime was sought in the drama of nature. What visual components elicit that feeling, in your view? Editor: Definitely the contrast. You’ve got the dense hatching suggesting deep shadow next to the white paper left untouched, highlighting the bare rock face. And those angular lines… they pull your eye all over the place! I find it hard to rest here. Curator: Indeed, the use of line becomes almost sculptural, carving out forms from what would otherwise be a flat surface. Notice the almost obsessive repetition of strokes—it's a very active surface. This linear focus reflects the influence of earlier masters like Jacob van Ruisdael. We might even find an echo of Claude Lorrain’s compositional strategies in this work. Editor: Yeah, but Ruisdael feels heavier, more... deliberate. This is looser, like a quick, almost anxious response. The composition, though seemingly straightforward, leads you through a wild path and forces you to actively engage. Almost as though you have to search for stillness or order amidst all that nervous mark-making. Curator: The Romantic movement, remember, reveled in emotional intensity. One sees artists turn away from the balanced compositions of previous eras toward dynamic, almost chaotic arrangements. Even the choice of a simple pen and ink sketch is meaningful—it speaks to immediacy, a direct connection to nature. Editor: You can almost hear the wind whistling through the rocks. It’s stark. No figures, no narrative, just the bare bones of a landscape. Makes you feel rather insignificant standing before it, I think. Like nature could shrug you off in an instant. I almost want to run away from it, or into it. A great way to experience Romanticism and human emotion. Curator: Precisely! I agree, it's an intimate and revealing work that manages to stir the emotions. Editor: A perfect, unsettling, little tremor of a drawing! I'll remember this one.