Lovers in a Grotto, Surrounded by Plants and Herb

The Lovers in a Grotto is an example of a herb piece, i.e., a surreal type of picture to be found only in the oeuvre of Carl Wilhelm Kolbe. Characterized by herb vegetation that prevents a view into the distance, the rampant foliage is combined with figures who seem miniature thus intensifying the fantastic aspect of nature. Humans and plants differ in terms of the style. While the herbs are presented in a naturalist idiom, the figures robes evoke the image of Arcadia, that venue of the Golden Age of Classical Antiquity. The insertion of the classicist figures into primordial nature seems almost like a pre-emption of Max Ernst’s collages in Modernist art. Kolbe’s images do justice to his wish to conjure up Objects from “the treasure trove” of the imagination and “pen them on paper”. Even the herbs are never drawn as he encountered them in nature, but always rely, as here, on the “working” imagination. (Gunda Luyken)