Otto Eglau, Raft Landscape in Sweden, 1956, Watercolor

Otto Eglau (1917 Berlin - 1988 Kampen), Raft Landscape in Sweden, 1956. Watercolor and ink on paper, 45 x 60 cm, signed in his own hand lower right with "Eglau" and dated "[19]56".

- somewhat darkened




- Temporary structures -


About the artwork

A wide river landscape stretches out before us, its horizon line running across the upper part of the picture, creating the impression of enormous depth. The depth is further extended by the dark tree trunks, most of which spill into the picture, and at the same time rhythmized by their different positions. This sequence of movements gives the landscape a strong dynamic moment. Indeed, the landscape seems to be "fleeing" from beneath us. To keep the gaze on the foreground alone requires a real visual effort. By looking at the foreground, we have already arrived at the background. Therefore, we cannot speak of pictorial grounds in the classical sense. Rather, we are confronted with a structurally rhythmic continuum of space, the dynamics of which are further accelerated by the cut tree trunks in the foreground and the upright trunks in the background, which function as target marks.

Since the narrow strip of sky has the same white tonality as the ice, this area also fits seamlessly into the spatial structure, so that a deserted "structural landscape" unfolds before us. The structure, however, is not - as in the case of Piet Mondrian - completely abstract and thus something that exists independently of itself, removed from the time of natural space. The structures that Otto Eglau discovered in nature remain bound to it, which is why they exhibit a temporality that corresponds to the 'course of things'. Even if they correspond to an architecture of nature brought to representation, the structures are not substantial, but contingent. Artistically uncovered, they present themselves to Eglau at the very moment he captures them. In nature itself, these structures will never be repeated in the same way. Panta rhei - everything flows, even if the flow of time is frozen by his artistic representation and the image, for all its dynamism, radiates calm at the same time.


"The structures I put behind things, and the lines that hold my paintings, are signs of transient life. They are random like the trace a wave leaves in the sand, blurred like the border between sea and land, ephemeral like the life of a shell I hold in my hand."

- Otto Eglau



About the artist

After his release from captivity in 1947, Otto Eglau studied at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Berlin. He was a student of Oskar Nerlinger, Max Kaus and Wolf Hoffmann. from 1953 he taught free drawing for architects at the Technical University of Berlin. In the years that followed, Eglau undertook numerous study trips that took him to Scandinavia, the Arab world, the Far East and even Macau. During these travels he cultivated the technique of watercolour, which allowed him to work quickly in the open air, while retaining a strong painterly quality.

Scholarships enabled Eglau to stay in Japan from 1962 to 1963 and in Naples in 1970. from 1969 to 1976 Eglau was professor of etching at the International Summer Academy of Fine Arts in Salzburg. Between 1983 and 1988 Eglau worked simultaneously in his Berlin studio at Lietzensee, which had its own printing press, and in his studio in Kampen on the island of Sylt.

Otto Eglau's work has been shown in more than 100 solo exhibitions worldwide and in more than 120 group exhibitions.


"I love the vastness of the island. The mudflats off Kampen are my treasure trove; here I discover new shapes and colors every day. Without Sylt, I would be like a fish without water."

- Otto Eglau



Selected Bibliography

Hanns Theodor Flemming: Otto Eglau. Das graphische Werk, Flensburg 1966.

Heinrich Seemann (Einführung): Otto Eglau. Inselskizzen, Hamburg 1982.

Heinrich Seemann (Einführung): Otto Eglau. Japan, Nepal, Sylt. Aquarelle. Zeichen und Strukturen. Einführung von Heinrich Seemann, Hamburg 1986.

Otto Eglau: Watt-Tagebuch. Ausgewählte Aquarelle aus den Skizzenbüchern Otto Eglaus. Kampen 1996.