Fritz Schwimbeck (1889-1972)
Gespenstisch Landschaft im Mondlicht [Spooky Landscape in Moonlight]
circa 1910s
pen and black ink on smooth laid paper
25,3 x 20,2 cm (10 x 8 in.)
signed in pencil lower center: "F. Schwimbeck"
signed again, verso
A magnificent drawing with a scooped edge on all four sides, it recalls, in its eerie detail, the work of the French artist Rodolphe Bresdin.
"The initially romantic-seeming landscape with a hiker and an angler turns out to be an extremely detailed night landscape charged with symbolism: here a skull, there a larger-than-life spider, snakes, turtles, worms, a huge carp in the pond and a monkey in the tree. In levels that seem to differ in time, a man with a distinctive hat first sits on the bank of a river and fishes before shortly afterwards, almost unimpressed by all the animal activity around him, starts his way home with his catch in his backpack." B
