August Kaufhold, (Untitled) Dramatic Impressionist Landscape

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Not a light and fluffy work, this dramatic impressionist landscape of a European village scene shortly after rainfall captures the … Read more Not a light and fluffy work, this dramatic impressionist landscape of a European village scene shortly after rainfall captures the moment when the sunshine is just breaking through and dark clouds are moving along elsewhere. The unpaved road with power lines strung overhead, suggest it was painted in the late 1920s or early 1930s, when recent memories of The Great War and Spanish Flu, on top of financial worries, weighed heavily. A message of sunny optimism was sorely needed. The picture’s underlying drama also comes from the artist’s use of impasto, the heavy layering on of paint with a brush or palette knife. It was a technique also favored by Rembrandt van Rijn, Diego Velázquez, Vincent van Gogh, Jackson Pollock, and Willem de Kooning. Good company.
Little is known about German painter August Kaufhold (1884-1955). He began life in Bremen, at a time when the city was a major hub for Germans preparing to emigrate to America through the city’s North Sea port Bremerhaven some 40 miles downriver. As German families customarily ensured that their sons learned a trade through professional training and apprenticeships in cities beyond their hometowns, it appears that Kaufhold followed this practical route. He received his formal instruction at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden, but also at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. The artist evidently spent his life within his native country, dying at age 71 in 1955. He is buried in the village of Dötlingen in Lower Saxony, less than an hour’s drive from his birthplace. See less