Leafless willow 

Curator: We are looking at "Leafless Willow" by Otto Scholderer. The piece employs pencil, chalk, and graphite on paper. It's currently housed here at the Städel Museum. Editor: It strikes me as quietly melancholic. The bare branches reach up, and the tones are very muted—lots of grey and brown. It has an ephemeral quality, like a memory. Curator: Consider how landscape art often intersects with ideas of national identity and belonging. Where does this image fit within Germany’s artistic production during Scholderer’s time, especially given its unassuming subject? Editor: I find willows themselves deeply symbolic. Their drooping branches often represent grief or mourning. But also resilience. The tree bends but doesn’t break, a poignant symbol during times of societal upheaval, maybe after war? It also connects to water and emotions. Curator: It’s intriguing you highlight its melancholic aspects, especially within a period where artists grappled with shifting power dynamics and rapid industrialization. Perhaps the barrenness reflects anxieties related to environmental transformation? What might "leafless" suggest metaphorically within that climate? Editor: Possibly anxieties about resource scarcity? Deforestation? On a personal level, willows in mythology are linked with enchantment and sadness, thresholds. This piece brings to mind the threshold between autumn and winter—or maybe life and death. Curator: Absolutely. This dialogue between external ecological threat and internal, perhaps subconscious, anxieties resonates strongly. By visually omitting the leaves, the artist invites viewers to reflect on both actual and symbolic states of loss. Editor: Well, the way he captured the texture of the bark is really exquisite—every little line adds depth and creates a very palpable sense of being there, standing beneath that tree, contemplating loss and endurance. Curator: Yes, the detail brings that universal idea of "loss" down to earth. Makes it all the more visceral. Editor: Exactly, and that, I think, is the key to its quiet power. Thank you for unpacking it further! Curator: Thank you. It's through these kinds of layered readings that we understand the image's continued significance.