Waldinneres, unten rechts zwei karikierte männliche Profilköpfe 1835

Curator: Here we have Johann Wilhelm Schirmer's "Waldinneres, unten rechts zwei karikierte männliche Profilköpfe," a pencil drawing from 1835, housed here at the Städel Museum. Editor: It’s...bleak, isn't it? Like a silent movie backdrop. The tangled branches feel almost oppressive, even ghostly, considering it's just a pencil sketch. Curator: The forest as a loaded symbol, yes. Consider how the Romantic movement grappled with nature—both sublime and terrifying, a space for solitary contemplation and confrontation with the self. That duality plays out here. What’s especially intriguing is the inclusion of the two caricatured male heads; one wonders what kind of commentary they offer? Editor: Hidden almost; barely perceptible down in the lower right. Are they observers, intruders, maybe even self-portraits revealing a darker aspect of the artist himself as he engages with the landscape? Their positioning implicates them as inherent to this setting, part of the history we're looking into. I am inclined to see this Romantic artist taking part in something else, namely caricature culture. Curator: Ah, excellent point about the caricature tradition. Often deployed as satire, the exaggeration of features became a tool to critique social structures. In relation to those rocks, however, might Schirmer have aimed at emphasizing a parallel between the static "hardness" of social conventions and those solid stone figures that confine the scene’s atmosphere and movement? Editor: Perhaps, though I am thinking, as I stare, about those trees in the middle; all bunched-up almost hugging. Are we suggesting some coded conversation with the tradition, a way to talk about something we can’t directly voice through allegory and these characters, the forest or our pair, acting as symbolic replacements. And that one leaning left almost like something human protecting those bare shrubs; perhaps here the landscape IS the issue. Curator: And by the hand of Schirmer here. I have seen several drafts where similar issues played out again and again. This man was concerned. That, plus that Renaissance technique of detailing what lies in front plus those muted and mysterious sketches make me believe the work holds its worth with beauty, context and technique all working in synchrony. Editor: All true, this sketch holds several interesting mysteries as to landscape and self in equal measure; making this small drawing a far more comprehensive social statement.