Studio Scene

Genre painters A. Greven, J. P. Hasenclever, J. Wilms, O. Grashof, W. Heine and C. Engel von der Rabenau create a ‘tableau vivant’ as if on a stage, drawn from real life rather than from some literary model. Behind the humorous scene we can discern the new way the genre painters viewed the creative team process, with its roots in real life, and the call for realistic art. Outdated teaching materials such as the ancient plaster model of the fencer, the manikin, and the props for a poetic-idealist form of history painting are thrown away, along with the knight’s helmet. Mouse traps and the map of Düsseldorf show where real life takes place: between the pawn shop and the brothel. The role of the genre painters as outsiders in the Academy and their banishment to Siberia (the book title) unites them as zestful drinking companions. Instead of a history painting, the back of which is being used as a wind trap and to wipe off brushes, before our eyes a new, true image arises that shows how genre painting comes about. The picture as painted art theory is a programmatic image for the Düsseldorf School of Painting. (Bettina Baumgärtel)