Hans Richard von Volkmann, Clay Jug on a Bench in the Sunlight, 1890, Woodblock Print

Hans Richard von Volkmann (1860 Halle (Saale) - 1927 ibid.), Clay jug on a bench. Pencil and Watercolour on paper. 20 x 26,7 cm (visible size), 37 x 45 cm (frame), dated and monogrammed lower left "Februar 1890 - HR. V. V."

- Minimally tanned. Framed behind glass in a passepartout.

Exposé as PDF


- The essence of the clay jar revealed by the sunlight -


About the artwork

Using the technique of his early youth - pencil and watercolour - Hans Richard von Volkmann depicts a still life. However, this is not a conventional indoor still life, but an open-air depiction, painted outdoors and not in the studio. It is therefore an open-air painting, characteristic of von Volkmann's oeuvre, which could have been painted in the Willingshausen colony of painters, where open-air painting was programmatically practised there and the artist stayed there that year.

And indeed, this painting is a manifesto of open-air painting. Von Volkmann demonstrates that leaving the studio for the light of nature leads to an entirely new quality of art. To prove this, he uses the genre of still life, which can be described as the studio subject par excellence. Moreover, light plays an essential role in the classical still life. It is the real protagonist of the still life. And it is precisely this moment, essential to the still life, that von Volkmann exploits to demonstrate the potential of plein-air painting: He presents the objects as they appear in the sunlight. The date of February and the bare branches in the foreground make it clear that this is a clear winter day in bright sunlight. The delicate plant in the foreground casts a clearly defined shadow, as does the jug. However, the shadow is most pronounced on the jug itself: The underside of the handle appears almost black, making the top, and therefore the jug itself, shine all the more brightly. The shining of the objects in the sunlight is also visible on the bench. As complementary phenomena to the shadow zones, light edges can be seen on the boards of the seats and the upper foot of the bench shines entirely in the light. To achieve this intensity of light, von Volkmann activated the bright white of the painting ground.

By depicting the objects in glistening sunlight, von Volkmann demonstrates that this quality of light is only to be found outdoors. And this light leads to a new way of looking at the objects themselves. The jug on the bench seems like an accidental arrangement, as if the artist had stumbled upon this unintentional still life and captured it with fascination. And in this fascination there is a moment of realisation that refers to the objects themselves. It is only when they shine brightly in the sunlight that their true nature is revealed. In this way, sunlight allows the objects to come into their own, so to speak. Sunlight, which is not present in the studio, gives the still life an entirely new dimension of reality, which is also reflected in the colours interwoven by the sunlight: The bench and the jug stand in a harmonious grey-pink contrast to the green of the implied meadow.

The emphasis on the jug as the central subject of the picture also implies that the watercolour has not been completed. This non finito inscribes a processuality into the picture, making it clear that something processual has been depicted, the temporality of which has been made artistically permanent. This is why von Volkmann signed the painting and dated it to the month.


About the Artist

Von Volkmann made his first artistic attempts at the age of 14. He painted many watercolours of his home town of Halle. This laid the foundation for his later outdoor painting.

In 1880 his autodidactic beginnings were professionalised with his admission to the Düsseldorf Art Academy. There he studied under Hugo Crola, Heinrich Lauenstein, Johann Peter Theodor Janssen and Eduard von Gebhardt until 1888. Von Volkmann then moved to the Karlsruhe Academy, where he was Gustav Schönleber's master pupil until 1892.

In 1883 he came for the first time to Willingshausen, Germany's oldest painters' colony, at the suggestion of his student friend Adolf Lins. He was to return to Willingshausen again and again over the next 25 years, even living there for a time to devote himself entirely to open-air painting.

Von Volkmann soon became a much sought-after landscape painter, and his works found their way into German museums. He became a professor in 1902 and a member of the board of the Deutscher Künstlerbund from 1906. Through his father, Richard von Volkmann, he also had an affinity for book illustration. Under the pseudonym Richard Leander, his father had published 'Träumereien an französischen Kaminen' (Dreams at French Chimneys), first published in 1871, which his son illustrated, among many other works.

"Over the years, he enriched his realist and naturalist means of artistic expression with influences from Art Nouveau and other modern trends, and was able to transform objective observations of nature into subjective atmospheric images".

- Heinz Bischof


Selection of exhibitions

1928 - Gedächtnisausstellung mit dem Frühwerk Hans von Volkmanns, Halle a. S.

2021 - Hans Richard von Volkmann. Landschaften, Kunsthalle in Willingshausen.


Selected Bibliography

Dorit Litt: Das künstlerische Schaffen des Landschaftsmalers Hans Richard von Volkmann, 1860 - 1927, Bonn 1996.

Bernd Küster: Hans von Volkmann, Bremen 1998