In the Leopold Museum in the Museum Quarter of Vienna, I discovered a number of artists about whom I had not previously heard. One of the most interesting was Egger-Lienz.
Albin Egger-Lienz (* 29 January 1868 in Stribach , community Doelsach in Lienz ( East Tyrol ); † November 4 1926 in St. Justina inBolzano ( South Tyrol )) was an Austrian painter .
The oeuvre of Egger-Lienz includes many oil paintings. Several of his designs and drawings are available in various versions and images. Some subjects, such as the Mountain Mowers, are lithographs.
1904 Egger-Lienz turned to the theme of the sower, which kept him busy until the 1920s. The prototype for this was Jean-François Millet (The Sower , 1851), the other inspiration was actually a work of Giovanni Seganti. 36 major works were exhibited in 1901 at the Secession. Characteristic of Egger-Lienz is also the long time between recognising a source to its development or use.
1904/05 in South Tyrol The Pilgrims originated, whose formal conception parallels to Ferdinand Hodler’s picture The Truth (1903), which was exhibited along with 30 other works belonging to Hodler in the spring of 1904 in the Secession. Although the first drafts of The Pilgrims showed in the middle a seated Madonna with Child, Egger-Lienz replaced them, under Hodler;’s influence by the Crucified Christ. By means of this painting Egger-Lienz made a breakthrough to his “monumental-decorative period”
Translated from http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albin_Egger-Lienz and more information may be found at http://www.altertuemliches.at/gemaelde/albin-egger-lienz
Following in this bucolic vein here is a somewhat sad but evocative poem possibly inspired by Hesse’s Swabian countryside.
Dorfabend by Hermann Hesse
Der Schäfer mit den Schafen
Zieht durch die stillen Gassen ein,
Die Häuser wollen schlafen
Und dämmern schon und nicken ein.
Ich bin in diesen Mauern
Der einzige fremde Mann zur Stund,
Es trinkt mein Herz mit Trauern
Den Kelch der Sehnsucht bis zum Grund.
Wohin der Weg mich führet,
hat überall ein Herd gebrannt;
Nur ich hab nie gespüret,
Was Heimat ist und Vaterland.
This has been put to music as at http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=50581
penwithlit 