landscape with a thunderstorm going away

A landscape with a departing thunderstorm, painted in 1917, shows Stuck turning to nature during the First World War years with an intensity that his earlier figure-dominated practice had not often permitted. By 1917 the cultural world of pre-war Munich had been shattered, and many of Stuck's most celebrated patrons and contemporaries were dead or displaced. A landscape subject — dramatic, elemental, the storm passing and light returning — carries obvious emotional resonance for the period. Stuck on panel producing an atmospheric nature study reflects both his continued technical productivity and a possible retreat from the mythological figure subjects that had made his name but now felt less urgent. The Federal Republic collection holds this panel alongside his figure works, documenting a less-known aspect of his output.

Panel support allows tighter control of atmospheric gradations, and Stuck likely exploited this for the shifting light effects of a post-storm sky. Paint handling in landscape mode is somewhat looser than in his figure work, with broader, more atmospheric passages rendering cloud and light. Tonal range from dark storm shadow to breaking light is the compositional engine.