Felswand an einem Gewässer, rechts Ausblick auf Bäume und Berge 

Franz Kobell rendered this landscape with pen and brown ink, showing a view of a rocky cliff and a body of water lined with trees. Born in Munich in 1749, Kobell came from a family of artists, and situated himself within a late-18th century artistic and intellectual milieu that emphasized the picturesque and the sublime. Yet, as we stand before this seemingly idyllic landscape, it is worth considering how the concept of the picturesque often served to mask the social and economic realities of the time. The vision of nature presented here, devoid of human presence or labor, obscures the realities of land ownership, resource extraction, and the lives of those who toiled in these landscapes. The absence of figures allows for a focus on the aesthetic experience, inviting viewers to contemplate the natural world as a source of beauty and spiritual renewal, but at what cost? What does it mean to seek solace in nature when access to it is so unevenly distributed? Kobell's work invites us to reflect on the power dynamics inherent in how we perceive and interact with the natural world.