Perugia 17 - 1872

Wilhelm Steinhausen rendered this impression of Perugia with pencil and watercolor in an indeterminate year. Notice how Steinhausen orchestrates the composition to guide your gaze across a landscape where the boundaries between the natural and the built environment seem deliberately blurred. The subdued palette of pale greens, browns, and grays creates a unified, almost monochromatic effect that softens the architectural details. This color scheme reflects a desire not to capture precise topographical accuracy, but rather to evoke a mood. The artist seems to be interested in how we perceive places through memory and feeling, and to achieve this, he uses the watercolor medium to suggest impermanence. The ethereal quality of the work challenges traditional landscape art values. Rather than presenting a clear, objective view, Steinhausen offers a subjective interpretation that emphasizes the transient nature of experience and the ways in which our perceptions shape reality. This tension between the objective and subjective is what makes the drawing not just a depiction, but a meditation on perception itself.