Heinrich Bürkel, Alpine pasture in the high mountains... Lot 46

Heinrich Bürkel, Alpine pasture in the high mountains with dairymaid. Oil on wood. (Circa 1865/68). 40,5 x 55 cm. Signed lower right. Framed. //rg/71,5/4 Heinrich Bürkel, the master of the Bavarian idyll, does not depict in his paintings the hard, deprived life of farmers and dairymen in the Bavarian Alps, but leisure pleasures, scuffles or moments of peace and inner contemplation. In our painting, the dairymaid is sitting barefoot on a bench in front of an alpine pasture, dressed in Sunday costume with a rosary and engrossed in her prayer book - is she waiting for the dairyman to come down to the village with her and attend the Sunday service? She is surrounded by cows, sheep and goats, which she takes care of during the week, but which now on Sunday have settled down in the meadow in front or are grazing peacefully there. It is a moment of silence and an arrangement typical for Bürkel, with which he was very successful in countless variations over decades. On a stage-like foreground, a dwelling slides diagonally into the picture, while in the background he opens the view to the imposing world of the Alps. The emphasis on diagonals, visible on a small scale in the fountains, but also in the layout of the path, dynamizes the composition, enlivening it in the finely tuned juxtaposition of verticals, horizontals and diagonals. We do not know how this peaceful story will continue, over which God is watching - not only the dairymaid reveals herself to be a devout Christian, but also the windmill on the roof of the alp forms the shape of a cross exactly above the dairymaid, not by chance. Everything happens under the protection of Christianity - it is God's creation that Bürkel tells about. It is a quiet, colorful mountain world that Bürkel presents to the viewer, observed precisely and with attention to detail, which also applies to the description of atmospheric moods: from the right, the sky darkens - is a thunderstorm possibly coming up, preventing the descent to the village? This mixture of nature depiction and rural genre, overarched by the all-encompassing power of religion, accounted for the worldwide success of Bürkel's painting. The motif of the alpine pasture was also very popular with the public - after Bürkel had already worked on the theme of the alpine pasture in several versions at the beginning of the 1840s, several almost identical versions exist from his last creative phase from about 1865-1868, which differ only slightly in format and staffage (Bühler/Krückl 97-99). Bürkel gave a painting with the title "Sonntag auf der Alm" to the Rhenish Art Exhibition in Mannheim as late as 1868, he sold another version for 260 florins to Speyer in 1868 and another version for 300 florins at the 3rd General German Art Exhibition in Vienna (cf. Bürkel's sales records, Stadtarchiv Pirmasens, fol. 150). Bürkel's insistence on the tried and tested composition is not evidence of a weakening or lack of innovative ability, but is simply due to the fact that Bürkel's paintings were in great demand during his lifetime and he could count collectors all over the world, especially in America, among his customers. His narrative power and compassionate powers of observation, his penchant for anecdote, have helped to manifest the idea of a natural, primitive Bavaria throughout the world to this day. With such paintings, Bürkel, together with Wilhelm Kobell, created the image of the Bavarian cultural landscape that still has an impact today. Peter Prange Bühler/Krückl 96. Literature: Hans-Peter Bühler and Albrecht Krückl, Heinrich Bürkel mit Werkverzeichnis der Gemälde, Munich 1989, cat. no. 96, with ill. p. 232. Provenance: Neumeister, Munich, auction 293, 25.9.1996, lot 484; private property, southern Germany. Taxation: differential taxed (VAT: Margin Scheme).