Heroische Landschaft mit Hirten 

Curator: The moment my eye lands on this ink and pen drawing, a feeling of wandering settles over me. Like a journey both physical and internal. Editor: Before we get too carried away, should we mention we're looking at Friedrich Metz's "Heroische Landschaft mit Hirten", now housed at the Städel Museum? It’s rendered simply in ink. What draws you in so immediately? Curator: It's the lightness, the ephemeral quality. He captures the essence of a landscape more than its specifics. The lines feel almost like a memory fading, like trying to grasp a dream of open space and movement. The heroic element seems to be the quiet bravery of facing such vastness. Editor: Heroic, yes, but I'm drawn to the *how*. Look at the furious hatching making those cloudscapes, almost architectural, then that gentler shading implying form upon the land. His labor—the time spent dragging that pen—transforms common material, plain paper, into an idea of nobility. The labor suggests that 'heroic' quality wasn’t a simple glance for Metz. Curator: Precisely! There's a yearning baked into the technique itself. It’s less a declaration and more an attempt to feel closer to nature's power. That yearning translates into the sketch itself; the marks aren't just descriptive, they are expressive. There's also that small figure that he included: that really adds something Editor: See how easily he positions labor: pen across the page to, literally, shepherd upon the plain. Is that so distant from the artisanal and manufacturing processes we would be more familiar with? Curator: Not distant at all, if we consider them attempts to communicate ideas using tools. The romantic yearning just transforms them into something magical. But you're right to pull it back to the physical – what IS heroic if it's not embodied? Editor: Exactly! So while you see ethereal dreaming, I'm compelled by that down-to-earth process—pen on paper—and its resonance throughout human history. A humble material elevated by simple hard work. Curator: A truly heroic material, wouldn't you say? Editor: Fitting, yes. Now I see both labors; the artist’s AND the imagined shepherd’s, walking on.