Skizzenbuch 1938

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drawing, mixed-media, paper

drawing

mixed-media

water colours

paper

mixed media

modernism

watercolor

This sketchbook was made by Ludwig Metz sometime in the 19th century, and I love how the marbled paper is like a painting in itself. The warm browns and tans swirl together, creating this organic pattern that feels both natural and completely artificial. Looking closely, the surface seems smooth, almost glossy, which contrasts with the intricate, slightly chaotic design. You can see how the marbling process might have involved floating pigments on water, creating those feathery, vein-like lines. It's interesting to think that the book, before it even contains sketches, is already covered with an abstract landscape. The sketchbook format makes me think of other artists like Cy Twombly, who also worked in sketchbooks, using them for their experiments. Ultimately, the purpose of a sketchbook is for process and iteration, leaving space for multiple ideas and ambiguous meaning.

Comments

stadelmuseum over 1 year ago

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Only the first seven of the detailed drawings in this sketchbook are dated April 1838 and have added locations, the other drawings, also those of the Eschenheimer Tor in Frankfurt, are unidentified. It is possible that Ludwig Metz took this book with him first on trips through Germany. The medieval buildings (half-timbered houses, castle ruins, gate towers and more), sailing ships and boats as well as the studies of gnarled tree trunks, their leafy or bare branches, could also have been created after graphic models, which the only 16-year-old Metz studied carefully. From his later sketches, which he partly sketched quickly without support, these extremely precise and partly almost pictorially composed drawings are, in any case, a long way off.A few pages are enclosed in this sketchbook, probably from another sketchbook, with depictions of the Heidelberg Castle, the Johanniskirche in Wernigerode and the Porta San Lorenzo.For a full sketchbook description, please see “Research”.