Althagen - Bodden

After the death of her husband René Graetz, Elizabeth Shaw rarely went to Fischland. But when she stayed here, she drew, even outdoors, directly in front of the subject. She produced simple drawings, landscape watercolours and pastels, such as the pastel "Althagen - Bodden", which captures the quiet Bodden landscape in an impressive way. It makes you feel how happy Elizabeth Shaw must have felt about this narrow stretch of land between the Bodden and the sea. Many of the motifs she chose can still be found today in Ahrenshoop and the surrounding area as if time had stood still. The enchanting pastel "Althagen - Bodden", which shows the landscape experienced in front of nature in the bright, slightly diffuse light of a summer's day, seems as if it has been breathed into. Colours and lines are used sparingly and with restraint. The horizon is delicately outlined. The reeds swaying in the wind, indicated by loose vertical strokes, give the horizontally oriented composition a gently moving rhythm. A tiny sailboat, sketched with a light hand, takes the eye into the distance, enrapturing the viewer in the face of this vastness and beauty. This landscape lay before the draughtswoman like a revelation. Precious and delicate, she put it on paper. Here Elizabeth Shaw, the quiet, reserved observer, seemed to be completely with herself.