Probably German School, Oil on canvas, romantic landscape with traveller, circa 1890-1910

Probably German School depicting a romantic landscape with a traveller. A very fine antique painting portraying a romantic landscape enlivened by a solitary figure seen from behind, making his way through a rocky valley dominated by tall trees. The composition is organised around an interplay of chiaroscuro; a luminous opening at the centre reveals a mountainous horizon, whilst the dark masses of the trees and rocks powerfully frame the scene. The iconography of the Wanderer — a figure dear to the German tradition — lends the work a symbolic and introspective dimension, inherited from nineteenth-century Romanticism. The brushwork is lively in the rocks, more blended in the skies and foliage, with a warm palette of browns, ochres and deep greens, typical of the Germanic schools. Fine antique patina, relined, mounted on its original keyed stretcher.