The Swiss painter Robert Zünd was one of the most accomplished landscape painters of his time. Born in Luzern in 1827, he moved to Geneva in 1848 to commence training as an artist, serving apprenticeships to such great landscape artists as Alexandre Calame (1810-64) and François Diday (1802-77). He finally returned to Luzern where he stayed until the end of his days.
Our present oil study is an excellent example of Zünd’s prowess as a painter of nature. The tree that has so ignominiously crashed to the ground is analysed in fine detail, with the split in the trunk captured in reddish brown. The branches of the tree occupy almost the entire right side of the canvas, sticking out helplessly like arms flailing for support. Here the tree has become a person.
The overall tone of the composition is ochre brown, interspersed with a subdued hue of green for the foliage of leaves in the thicket behind the collapsed tree stump. The oil study shows how an eye for precise detail did not prevent Zünd from putting together a dramatic composition.
In later life Zünd achieved distinction with large-format landscapes that count as some of the best in late 19th century art. But it is in the earlier oil studies that we can truly see a magnificent hand at work.
Our present oil study is an excellent example of Zünd’s prowess as a painter of nature. The tree that has so ignominiously crashed to the ground is analysed in fine detail, with the split in the trunk captured in reddish brown. The branches of the tree occupy almost the entire right side of the canvas, sticking out helplessly like arms flailing for support. Here the tree has become a person.
The overall tone of the composition is ochre brown, interspersed with a subdued hue of green for the foliage of leaves in the thicket behind the collapsed tree stump. The oil study shows how an eye for precise detail did not prevent Zünd from putting together a dramatic composition.
In later life Zünd achieved distinction with large-format landscapes that count as some of the best in late 19th century art. But it is in the earlier oil studies that we can truly see a magnificent hand at work.
Uprooted Tree
oil on paper, laid down on card
16,5 x 28,4 cm
Provenance
Private collection, Switzerland
The Swiss painter Robert Zünd was one of the most accomplished landscape painters of his time. Born in Luzern in 1827, he moved to Geneva in 1848 to commence training as an artist, serving apprenticeships to such great landscape artists as Alexandre Calame (1810-64) and François Diday (1802-77). He finally returned to Luzern where he stayed until the end of his days.
Our present oil study is an excellent example of Zünd’s prowess as a painter of nature. The tree that has so ignominiously crashed to the ground is analysed in fine detail, with the split in the trunk captured in reddish brown. The branches of the tree occupy almost the entire right side of the canvas, sticking out helplessly like arms flailing for support. Here the tree has become a person.
The overall tone of the composition is ochre brown, interspersed with a subdued hue of green for the foliage of leaves in the thicket behind the collapsed tree stump. The oil study shows how an eye for precise detail did not prevent Zünd from putting together a dramatic composition.
In later life Zünd achieved distinction with large-format landscapes that count as some of the best in late 19th century art. But it is in the earlier oil studies that we can truly see a magnificent hand at work.
Our present oil study is an excellent example of Zünd’s prowess as a painter of nature. The tree that has so ignominiously crashed to the ground is analysed in fine detail, with the split in the trunk captured in reddish brown. The branches of the tree occupy almost the entire right side of the canvas, sticking out helplessly like arms flailing for support. Here the tree has become a person.
The overall tone of the composition is ochre brown, interspersed with a subdued hue of green for the foliage of leaves in the thicket behind the collapsed tree stump. The oil study shows how an eye for precise detail did not prevent Zünd from putting together a dramatic composition.
In later life Zünd achieved distinction with large-format landscapes that count as some of the best in late 19th century art. But it is in the earlier oil studies that we can truly see a magnificent hand at work.
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