In tavern

August Ludwig Most created this composition in 1834 when he returned to Szczecin for good after years of studies and work in Berlin and Dresden. The work was presented at the annual exhibition of the Royal Academy of Art in Berlin. It turned out to be so attractive that directly from the exhibition it was purchased by the Berlin Art Association. The acquisition to the collection of the National Museum in Szczecin took place almost two centuries later via the Kunsthaus Lempertz Auction House in Cologne; earlier, it was a part of a private collection in Rhineland. The painter presented an extensive, multi-figure genre scene inside a brick stable, with tall arcaded windows. The persons who are in the inn include numerous and diversified representatives of the local community. In the middle, a joyful company is dining at a large table. Individual guests are occupying a smaller table next to the window; one of them is reading a newspaper, the other is immersed in his thoughts, the third one is sleeping. A band of three suddenly bursts through the open door. A staff woman is working at the counter by the wall. A child helper is putting wood chips into the fire. Various vessels and items are placed chaotically on the floor, walls and pieces of furniture. The character of the scene and its preparation by Most make references to the modern Dutch painting. This is noticeable, among others, in the long-range presentation of the room, the poses and the gestures of the models, faithful rendition of the furniture and items, as well as the light of the interior. The art of the seventeenth century Republic of Seven United Netherlands was ideologically and artistically close to the emancipating German middle class in the Biedermeier period, which ˗ probably also on account of prestige ˗ willingly adorned the walls of their houses with scenes painted in a manner resembling paintings ordered by the affluent Dutch burghers two centuries earlier.

Dariusz Kacprzak