Landscape

Carl Anton Reichel's engraving gives the impression of abstract composition and brings a child's picture intended to be coloured to mind. It is a landscape with woven figural motifs. Reichel has linked various artistic traditions in this landscape: the art of Ancient Greece with its contoured silhouettes and the 17th-century painting of Claude Lorrain, in which ancient and biblical figures, depicted on a miniature scale, disappear in the lush nature. He used the form of contour graphics, highly regarded around 1800. He also included motifs of Eastern beliefs in the engraving since he was fascinated with the culture of India. The modern composition is very characteristic of Reichel's art. The association with children's art and spontaneous children's creation is fully justified, as Reichel dealt with psychology and probably dealt with children's drawings. The work was done with the technique of contour etching on thick handmade paper in 1915. It is the first of two prints printed from the plate that was later destroyed.The Austrian Carl Anton Reichel was born in Wels in 1874 and died in Vienna in 1944. He was a graphic artist, draughtsman, and illustrator. He received a multi-faceted education. Between 1894 and 1901, he studied medicine and psychology, art history and culture of India in Vienna, Munich and Prague. He also deepened his artistic education in Paris at the Académie Julian and in Munich, learning the secrets of graphic techniques - woodcut and etching. He was interested in Buddhism, Far Eastern philosophy, hypnosis, spiritualism, and cosmology. These interests were reflected in his works. He worked for a while at the Bürgelstein Castle near Salzburg, maintaining contact with representatives of art and culture, including the innovative composer Arnold Schönberg and the Expressionist Alfred Kubin. From 1917 to 1924, he ran his salon in Kremstal.

Ewa Gwiazdowska