Bavarian Postal Coach before the New Gate in Nuremberg

Oil on wood. This 1823 work by Johann Adam Klein shows no trace of the many hardships that traveling involved in the nineteenth century. A coach, subtly modeled with light and shadow, passes the viewer by, heading in the direction of Bamberg. In the center is the whip-wielding postilion, and through the coach window we catch sight of a young woman. Dressed in a red mantle with a lace collar, she gazes toward a rider who is deep in conversation with a peasant. The men, together with a calf and a dog, are set away in the shadowy right corner of the picture – a trick to enhance the sense of depth. In the background, we see the city of Nuremberg from the northwest. Klein made a number of preparatory watercolors and drawings of the landscape and the harness fittings. The result is a work typical of the painter, developed from precisely prepared studies, and still readily decipherable by the viewer today.