Q124336540

Held at the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München, this 1840 oil on canvas by Richter entered a collection primarily dedicated to works on paper — a somewhat unusual home for a painting that suggests the work may have been acquired for its close relationship to a drawing or print project. Richter was by 1840 increasingly involved in book illustration and the production of drawings for reproductive engraving, and some of his oil sketches of this period served as compositional studies for printed works that reached much wider audiences than the paintings themselves. The Munich Graphische Sammlung's interest in the intersection of drawing and painting practices makes this an intellectually appropriate institutional home. Richter's work from 1840 reflects his deepening engagement with the image as a communicative object — not merely aesthetic but moral and narrative in intent.

If serving as a compositional study, the oil would show relatively direct handling — block-in of forms and tonal relationships without the patient finish of exhibition canvases. Strong tonal contrasts would help the artist test how the composition would read when translated to the black-and-white medium of engraving.