Regenlandschaft mit in sumpfigem Terrain stehenden Eichen und Birken 

Jakob Maurer rendered this landscape with chalk and pencil on paper. These humble materials are very much in keeping with the image's subject; an apparently unpopulated and untitled scene with a grove of trees in a marshy field. The appeal of this picture comes from its directness. You can see the marks of Maurer's hand everywhere in the parallel lines of the chalk. It's as though he wanted to let the material speak for itself, a quality enhanced by the muted palette of browns, greens, and grays, reminiscent of the somber Barbizon school. It may seem strange to apply the idea of labor to a simple landscape drawing like this. Yet, the image suggests a different pace of life, one closer to nature. In doing so, Maurer seems to ask whether the Industrial Revolution was truly progress at all, a theme very common in the craft movement of the late 19th century.