A New German Artist

Well, he died in 1915, but he's new to ME.

(I’ll save you some time. If you’re just here for the art, scroll by the musings until you reach the painting. You’re welcome.)

I was scrolling through Tumblr one morning, as I do while waiting for my tea to steep, and came across a painting that stopped me in my tracks. It’s BEAUTIFUL, emotional, colorful, calming and reminds me of simpler times - which hits all the right buttons for me. Especially the simpler times thing.

My blood pressure has been running high, for NO reason I can figure, except I am not living in the moment. Even walking down the hall to get a shower, my brain is tweaking me with what needs to be done today, why are all these books on the bookshelves, if you ever sell this house how are you going to get rid of all of them in time, maybe you should start NOW, or tomorrow, or sometime SOON because you don’t want to downsize in a DAY, you need a LOT of time, and what about all of these paintings? . . . and on and on and on. My brain doesn’t want to feel the breeze from the fan, or smell the tea, or stroke the cat and think about STROKING THE CAT and how NICE it feels. Nope, my brain wants to move, move, MOVE as I recall saying to one of my soldiers when I was Chief of Justice and needed something in court.

I have been working today on taking minutes throughout to slow down, to breathe deeply, to notice what’s around me, to enjoy a moment. Or two. And my blood pressure goes back down when I get it right.

I remember sitting on my grandmother’s porch during a break from studying for the bar exam - my grandmother and great aunts were rocking and laughing while snapping beans for dinner, talking idly about nothing very important. Or so it seemed to me, because I couldn’t sit still and couldn’t bear that we were talking about boring, every day things, like we had FREE TIME or something. Geez. So it appears that my entire life I’ve felt guilty taking free time, and now that it’s all I have, my mad little dictator of a brain can’t handle it. You WILL do something important every minute, and if you’re not doing anything important, you will THINK about something important that you need to do. No smelling roses! No just sitting and enjoying the sun on your face!

When I took the Vedic meditation class - which HAS helped - our instructor said that Western philosophy makes us feel guilty for taking free time, getting things too easily, we feel like we have to work, work, work to succeed. Eastern philosophy has an easier, softer, effortless flow to it. When you try the least at meditation, not make an effort to settle, not judge yourself for not getting it, that’s when you get it. Still working on wrapping my brain around that one.

I think my brain must look like Marvin the Martian in the old Warner Brothers cartoons. Very serious, always working on something instead of just enjoying joking around and joining forces with Bugs Bunny. Everything goes GREAT for Bugs Bunny and he doesn’t even have to try. Hmmm.

ANYWAY, to the painting. Isn’t it gorgeous?

I had fun imagining if I would like it as much without the dishes on the floor - presumably for feeding the cat in the doorway. Or what if the chairs were pushed into the table instead of looking like someone just left? Or if the cabinet door was closed instead of open? Or if you take the mirror off the wall and the lady away from the table? Makes you realize just how well he planned a painting that reads as an immediate moment in time, hastily painted.

And the red reflection on the door of the cabinet. The green reflection on the floor tiles and the glass in the open door to the outside. The side of the woman’s face in the mirror. So much perfection.

I took the painting above from my original source, but while researching I found a few other ones. Interesting to speculate on the emotional reaction when the colors change. See what I mean?

The painter’s name is Gotthardt Kuehl, and this painting is called Das Gartenzimmer (the Garden Room). Here’s a brief biography from ArtVee.

Gotthardt Kuehl (1850-1915) was a German painter and a representative of early German Impressionism. He gained wide international recognition during his lifetime.

His father, Simon Kühl, was the Sexton and organist at St. Lorenz Church. He studied at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts (1867) and the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, (1870). From 1878 to 1889, he lived in Paris. He also made study trips to Italy and the Netherlands. In 1888, he married Henriette Simonson-Castelli (1860–1921), daughter of the portrait painter, David Simonson.

At the turn of the century, he and Carl Bantzer, a friend from Paris, were the driving forces behind the establishment of the Verein bildender Kunstler Dresden [de] (artists' association). Together, they were also influential in introducing Impressionism there. In 1895, he was named a Professor at the Academy. The following year, he was awarded a gold medal at the Große Berliner Kunstausstellung. In 1902, he was one of the founding members of another artists' association, "Die Elbier [de]". He also served as one of the first board members of the Deutschen Künstlerbundes. In 1913, he was honored with the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art.

From 1906 until his death, he lived in a villa near the Wasaplatz. He was cremated and placed in the Urnenhain Tolkewitz. A street has been named for him in Dresden's Strehlen district. in Lübeck a school, originally on the site of his parents' house, was named after him in 1934.

FUN! I got to use some of my German Duolingo learning in a couple of places. Ich bin Künstlerin. (I am an artist, female - the male is straight Künstler. ) Ich male. I paint. I think. Seems like there should be another word there. Maybe Ich male landschaften?

His other paintings are just as wonderful. Even his landscapes - landschaften - although I don’t think they were his favorite subjects. Still, the water looks COLD, so props for that. I love how he painted an identical scene, but changed the color, warmed it up by lighting the lamp and added a building to the second one, as well a roughing up the sidewalk. The last one is of a summertime Dresden. One of my favorite cities! The rebuilt Frauenkirche is beautiful. And the art museum! And that top painting lives there, but I can’t remember seeing it when I visited. I was more taken with the huge Canalettos and spent most of my time in the Old Masters Gallery. Next time maybe I’ll get to the rest of it. GREAT website, if you want to check it out. You can toggle between Deutsch and English with the arrow at the top.

And here are some of the rest of his gorgeous, atmospheric work. I’ve given you some detail shots for some of the paintings. Can you see why I fell into an art rabbit hole today? Art rabbit holes are my favorite kind. Much more Bugs Bunny than Marvin the Martian.

Thanks, Gotthardt Kuehl, for a great afternoon of eye candy!