Farewell at Dawn

In works — both poetic and accessible — which the artist himself referred to as “occasional poems,” Schwind liked to record episodes from his own life. He also described this series of small idylls as “Travel Pictures.” Scenes, like this one of his departure from Vienna thirty years before, are concentrated into a lyrical image. Here, the painting achieves its timeless relevance by the telling way it captures that decisive moment of the traveller looking back and forwards at the same time.