Schweißhunde mit erlegtem Hirsch 1902

Carl Reichert’s Schweißhunde mit erlegtem Hirsch captures a hunting scene with a tight focus on texture and tone. It's easy to imagine Reichert outdoors, in the crisp, cold air, building up thin layers of paint. There’s such clarity in the dogs’ fur, in the snow, and in the lifeless coat of the deer, though this clarity is a trick of the eye. The surface of the painting is built from many subtle marks, small adjustments in color and tone. Look at the way the snow is rendered. See those tiny daubs of white and grey? How they catch the light? It’s as if Reichert is showing us how to look, how to really see the world around us. Reichert reminds me a little of Courbet, especially his hunting scenes, though this work is more sentimental, less critical. It reminds me that art is about looking, and about how we can find something beautiful even in the darkest of places.