Aufbruch der Fischer

'Aufbruch der Fischer' (Departure of the Fishermen), painted in 1873 and held at the Von der Heydt Museum in Wuppertal, was produced during the same productive Italian year as 'The Rowers' and 'Man Digging.' Like those works, it takes working-class physical labour as the subject of serious figure painting, here depicting the departure of fishermen for the sea — a subject with both genre and quasi-mythological resonances in Mediterranean culture. The departure scene has archetypal dimensions: men leaving land for the unpredictable sea, the farewell of women and children, the eternal rhythm of maritime labour. Von Marées treats these resonances without sentimentality, presenting the figures with the same formal gravity he brings to his classical subjects. The Von der Heydt Museum holds two von Marées works from 1873, testament to the museum's engagement with this underappreciated artist.

The composition structures the departure as a procession of figures moving from the land setting toward the implied sea, creating directional movement across the canvas. Von Marées organises the figures with his characteristic attention to formal variety — different postures, directions, and spatial positions — while maintaining the compositional unity he sought. The warm Mediterranean palette situates the scene in southern European maritime life.