Engagement

The painting by Eugen Klimsch, who spent a large part of his life in Frankfurt am Mein, from the collections of the pre-war Municipal Museum in Szczecin, is a romantic scene of a secret betrothal of a pair of young people in seventeenth century courtly attires, shown in a forest setting. The viewers’ attention is attracted by the intensity of diversified deep tones of green, soft modelling of the figures, as well as ease in the presentation of outfit details. Using light, the painter has managed to create an intimate atmosphere, corresponding to the idyllic character of the presented event.Genre scenes with sentimental undertones, such as lovers’ meetings, flirting, proposals, or reading of love letters, were greatly popular in the nineteenth century salon painting. The works of numerous German artists feature diverse idyllic scenes with such characters as Tristan and Isolde, Tannhäuser and Venus, as well as Lancelot and Guinevere. Painters drew inspiration from fairy tales, legends, Medieval accounts, literary works (Dante Alighieri, Torquato Tasso, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Alessandro Manzoni). Eugen Klimsch’s work probably refers to some literary love theme. The artist was also willingly engaged in book illustration projects. He prepared the illustrations for the works of Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, Heinrich Klethke, William Shakespeare and Johann Wolfgang Goethe. The painting “Betrothal” is the beginning of a story; its next part is a genre scene in interior, entitled “Family Bliss”, also in the collections of the National Museum in Szczecin.

Dariusz Kacprzak