Youth Playing a Lyre to a Maiden by a Fountain
Medium
etching on heavy wove paper
Dimensions
image: 38.7 × 51.1 cm · sheet: 45.7 × 59.7 cm
Classification
Department
Prints
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Virginia Barbato
Accession Number
2019.243
Tags
male
About this artwork
Youth Playing a Lyre to a Maiden by a Fountain features seated lovers singled out by the light that strikes their upper bodies, which counters the overwhelming scale of the fantastical growth of vegetation surrounding them. Carl Wilhelm Kolbe’s “vegetable sheets” broke new ground in Germany around 1800 by focusing on giant vegetation, allowing the viewer to experience the mysterious life in the undergrowth, a place untouched by humankind. Here, the vegetation is magnified, filling almost the ent...