Only in very rare cases of luck do new discoveries like this succeed. For many years and decades, Ernst Ferdinand Oehme's ‘Summer Afternoon’ remained in a well-guarded slumber in private German ownership. And, fittingly, the painting itself also evokes associations with Sleeping Beauty: In front of castle-like architecture, roses entwine themselves around a balcony on which a girl stands and looks down at a young man who has taken a seat on a bench deep below her and is completely absorbed in reading a book. His clothes with the typical headgear, the smoking pipe and the rapier lying in the grass identify him as a student. He doesn't seem to notice the woman's longing gaze. Or has he come here because of her? Oehme's narrative remains somewhat vague, but the location is extremely specific. We are standing on the ascent to Meißen Castle Hill, looking out over the city with the towering spire of the Frauenkirche. The air is warm and breathes the peaceful languour of a late afternoon in summer. You can almost hear the birds singing and the splashing of the fountain set into the wall on the right. Images from Eichendorff's fairy tale novellas come to mind. Florio ‘gazes in wonder at trees, fountains and flowers, for it seemed to him as if all this had long since sunk, and above him the stream of days was flowing with light, clear waves, and below only the garden lay bound and enchanted, dreaming of the past life’ (Joseph v. Eichendorff, ‘Das Marmorbild’, 1819). This nostalgia also wafts through Oehme's painting, but at the same time you can sense the influence of his teacher Caspar David Friedrich.
Ludwig Richter also played a part in the ‘Summer Afternoon’. He lived in Meissen from 1828 to 1836, not always happily and always all the more delighted by the visits of his Dresden friends Oehme and Carl Peschel. The path to Richter led up the hill, directly to the castle gate, where the family lived in the so-called Burglehenhaus at Freiheit No. 2. The view was ‘delightfully beautiful due to the high location and the romantic surroundings’ (Ludwig Richter, Lebenserinnerungen eines deutschen Malers, 1885), and so it is not surprising that Oehme was inspired to create one of his most successful paintings here: his composition ‘Stille Weihnacht’ (Silent Christmas), which has survived in three versions (now in the Albertinum in Dresden and the Milwaukee Art Museum), can undoubtedly be seen as the counterpart to our painting. Both pictures take us into the idyllic small town of Meissen, up the alley that leads to Ludwig Richter: once in summer in the late afternoon, with roses in bloom and the sky glowing golden - and once in winter, perhaps at the same time of day, with a sparkling Christmas tree behind the window and snow on the roofs. FMG
Oil on canvas. 81,5 × 72 cm
(32 ⅛ × 28 ⅜ in.). Dated and signed lower right: 18 E. Oehme. 19. Catalogue raisonné: Accompanied by a certificate by Prof. E. Schwarz, Leipzig, dated 25 February 1947.. Retouchings. [3052]
Provenance
Willi Reichstein, Leipzig (died 1976, thence by descent to the present owner)
Only in very rare cases of luck do new discoveries like this succeed. For many years and decades, Ernst Ferdinand Oehme's ‘Summer Afternoon’ remained in a well-guarded slumber in private German ownership. And, fittingly, the painting itself also evokes associations with Sleeping Beauty: In front of castle-like architecture, roses entwine themselves around a balcony on which a girl stands and looks down at a young man who has taken a seat on a bench deep below her and is completely absorbed in reading a book. His clothes with the typical headgear, the smoking pipe and the rapier lying in the grass identify him as a student. He doesn't seem to notice the woman's longing gaze. Or has he come here because of her? Oehme's narrative remains somewhat vague, but the location is extremely specific. We are standing on the ascent to Meißen Castle Hill, looking out over the city with the towering spire of the Frauenkirche. The air is warm and breathes the peaceful languour of a late afternoon in summer. You can almost hear the birds singing and the splashing of the fountain set into the wall on the right. Images from Eichendorff's fairy tale novellas come to mind. Florio ‘gazes in wonder at trees, fountains and flowers, for it seemed to him as if all this had long since sunk, and above him the stream of days was flowing with light, clear waves, and below only the garden lay bound and enchanted, dreaming of the past life’ (Joseph v. Eichendorff, ‘Das Marmorbild’, 1819). This nostalgia also wafts through Oehme's painting, but at the same time you can sense the influence of his teacher Caspar David Friedrich.
Ludwig Richter also played a part in the ‘Summer Afternoon’. He lived in Meissen from 1828 to 1836, not always happily and always all the more delighted by the visits of his Dresden friends Oehme and Carl Peschel. The path to Richter led up the hill, directly to the castle gate, where the family lived in the so-called Burglehenhaus at Freiheit No. 2. The view was ‘delightfully beautiful due to the high location and the romantic surroundings’ (Ludwig Richter, Lebenserinnerungen eines deutschen Malers, 1885), and so it is not surprising that Oehme was inspired to create one of his most successful paintings here: his composition ‘Stille Weihnacht’ (Silent Christmas), which has survived in three versions (now in the Albertinum in Dresden and the Milwaukee Art Museum), can undoubtedly be seen as the counterpart to our painting. Both pictures take us into the idyllic small town of Meissen, up the alley that leads to Ludwig Richter: once in summer in the late afternoon, with roses in bloom and the sky glowing golden - and once in winter, perhaps at the same time of day, with a sparkling Christmas tree behind the window and snow on the roofs. FMG
