Street near St Turin 12 - 1917

Jakob Nussbaum made this pencil drawing called 'Street near St Turin'. We think it was made in 1917. The somewhat bleak scene speaks to the social conditions of its time. Nussbaum’s sketch depicts a street lined with bare trees, perhaps on the outskirts of a small town. In the background, we see buildings and telephone poles. The absence of people and the starkness of the trees create a sense of isolation and perhaps even unease. Germany was in the middle of World War One. The drawing’s unpolished aesthetic might be read as a critique of the traditional art establishment, which often favored idealized and romanticized depictions of the world. Artists were turning away from the formal constraints of academic painting, embracing a more direct, unfiltered approach. To fully understand the context of Nussbaum's work, one might delve into the cultural and political history of Germany during the First World War. Archival material, letters, and other documents of the period, might shed light on how the conflict shaped the artist's worldview and artistic practice.