MR. Gründel's Journey

Capturing a site, an impression or an experience in a painting is my natural approach of sketching, drafting and painting. When it comes to anything alike a reproduction, this is going to be tough for me. I rarely do it. Having been asked by a vacation home owner to reproduce Alois Gründel painting about the beautiful landmark, the view into the Rabeneck valley in the Fränkische Schweiz, I was more hesitant than curious.

The original painting is from 1947. It appeared damaged and painted on a cardboard - a low cost variant we see in these days in artworks coming in from developing countries where art supplies are expensive if accessible at all. Mr. Gründel introduced 1947 with this piece a great artwork - still being painted in a traditional, even full site coverage style. No exploration of Dadaism, not even close to expressionism, everything made explicit: being the fisherman who is catching a trout in the river, a mail coach catching up the tight schedule while coming nearby.

Alois Gründel "Blick ins Rabeneck Tal" (Looking into the Rabeneck Valley) [1947]

The painter placed himself right into the scenery.

He detailed everything: the castle Rabeneck, the trees and the mountains and he forgot not a single stone - he must have counted them. He asked for preciseness. And he reflected upon what he saw - like a true plein-air painter. 

Alois Gründel Recapture by Barbara Flügge [2017]

Right after World War II, you might have expected a modern, aggressive and broken image of a landscape in the middle of Europe. The painter focused on the beauty of the landscape. That is why I accepted the ask to paint it..

We can only imagine why Aloys Gründel kept his way of painting. 

For me, it took me 1.5 years to complete the reproduction. I started simply by looking at the original and re-started by thinking about where Mr. Gründel placed himself, where he was sitting, observing the scenery. I wanted to be careful not to influence the reproduction with my own style. One of the rare exceptions where I keep visually quiet I have to admit. Unlike the Metamorphosis series, I wanted to be as precise as possible. And I encountered after 1 year down the road that Alois Gründel applied a modern style of his own: lavender colored trees, a symphony of harmony though targeted to the mail coach being in a hurry. I wondered what happened if I missed out a couple of trees, stones and the mail coach.

The longer I explored the painting from Mr. Gründel, the more I focused on the mail coach as this was the focal point. Anything else would have been a classic scenery. The mail coach I wondered was it hurrying up to deliver mail, food or even an important passenger? Was it a reminiscence to the "good, old, and peaceful" times? Or was it an invitation to wish back the new normal of living after the war and getting back on track - if that would have been ever possible at this stage in time? I could not find anything on the web about Alois Gründel and his artwork. So I am still left with my guessing.

After 1.5 years I finally handed over the reproduction to the customer. It will now complete one of the vacation apartments the owners are offering in the Fränkische Schweiz, in Northern Bavaria.