Gebirgslandschaft mit hohen Bäumen 

Franz Kobell rendered this Mountainous Landscape with High Trees with pen and brush in brown ink and gray wash. Kobell, born into a family of artists, occupied a unique position in society during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. As a landscape artist he was both a recorder and an interpreter of nature, during a time when the landscape was often idealized to reflect cultural and national identities. In this scene, figures are included as a minor element, their small presence emphasizing the grandeur and sublimity of nature. The monochrome palette evokes a sense of timelessness, but also perhaps, a certain austerity. In the cultural context of the Enlightenment and the rise of Romanticism, landscapes became a medium through which artists expressed their emotional and philosophical responses to the world. Kobell masterfully captures the emotional experience of confronting nature's imposing beauty.