Landscape

Walter Leistikow’ composition, known under several titles: Waldsee (Forest Lake), Schlachtensee in Grunewald (Schlachten Lake in Grunewald), Abendstimmung (Evening Mood), Grunewaldsee (Lake Grunewald), depicts a corner of nature in the Grunewald forest near Berlin. The artist admires the evening view of the lake from a narrow path leading above a steep bank. The dark water surface is illuminated by the wind creasing its surface and the light from human settlements penetrating the gaps between the trees. Silence reigns all around, as the dense greenery of tall pines and broom bushes surrounding the lake emphasises. The print was made as etching, in a green tone, on thin Japanese paper. It comes from the fine arts journal Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst. It was published in 1902, in the 37th volume of a new series. The composition entitled Waldsee was reprinted several times. In 1915, it was issued by the E.A. Seemann Publishing House in Leipzig. It is one of the best-known landscapes by Walter Leistikow. In addition to the illustrated version, a painting version was created as Leistikow made an oil painting entitled Grunewaldsee in 1895. The artist often took up the theme of the lakes in the Grunewald, emphasising different elements of the landscape. He took a similar approach in his painting A Gloomy Day in Grünheide. Walter Leistikow was born in Bydgoszcz in 1865 and died in 1908 in Schlachtensee near Berlin, where he lived and worked, creating atmospheric landscapes. He trained at the art academy in Berlin and then privately under Hermann Eschke and Hans Gudy. He belonged to the artistic avant-garde, which was created by the representatives of the movement called Art Nouveau or Jugendstil at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. In 1899, he became a co-founder of the artists' association Secession Berlin. He also belonged to the Munich Secession. He was active as a teacher in drawing at the School of Art in Berlin.

Ewa Gwiazdowska