Bathers
Medium
Etching on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 50.7 × 42.6 cm (20 × 16 13/16 in.); Plate: 55.8 × 45.5 cm (22 × 17 15/16 in.); Sheet: 62.2 × 51.9 cm (24 1/2 × 20 7/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
31959
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Carl Wilhelm Kolbe was a late bloomer, taking art classes at the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin in his 30s. Unusually, this self-taught etcher did not produce any paintings. Instead he focused on his many idiosyncratic prints of lushly detailed landscapes with mythological overtones. This large sheet includes his signature majestic oak trees and patches of aggressively overgrown foliage, a herd of cows, and a pair of nude men who may come from a different era than the travelers in the background...