Landscape

Walter Leistikow's landscape, known under the titles Sommer (Summer), Häuser am See (Houses by the Lake), Waldsee (Forest Lake), Ufer mit Bauernhäuser (Lake Shore with Peasant Houses), depicts a forest overgrowing a slope descending towards the surface of the water. The artist is probably looking at this forest from a boat floating away from the shore. The stylised treetops give the composition a fairy-tale charm. Near the water, there are simple, realistic forms of several houses, probably inhabited by fishermen.The print was made in etching technique, in a reddish tone, on thick Japanese paper. It comes from the magazine devoted to fine arts, Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst. It was published in 1902, in the 37th volume of a new series. The composition entitled Waldsee was reprinted, and in 1915 it was published by the E.A. Seemann Publishing House in Leipzig.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