Gewässer mit geborstenem Baum 

Franz Kobell sketched this waterscape with broken tree using pen and brush. The motif of a broken or decaying tree has long resonated across cultures, symbolizing mortality, loss, and the transience of existence. This motif is deeply embedded in our collective consciousness, a melancholic symbol that transcends time and geography. We see echoes of it in classical art as well as in 19th-century Romanticism, each era imbuing the image with its own layer of meaning. Think of the romantic ruins painted by Caspar David Friedrich, where nature reclaims human structures, or the vanitas paintings of the Dutch Golden Age, filled with skulls and decaying fruit. The broken tree is a reminder of the inevitable decay that awaits all living things, a somber yet powerful expression that touches our subconscious. Through the recurring motif, artists across generations tap into our shared understanding of the fragility of life, creating a visual language that evokes a sense of longing and contemplation.