Lot 306 Dα

The artworks that Johan Thorn Prikker created around the turn of the century are defined by his “step outside”. Striving to overcome the ever-increasing alienation between humanity and nature, but also of the artist within society, he decided to direct his gaze into the landscape.
Setting out from a realistic representation of nature, Thorn Prikker quickly arrived at a high degree of abstraction and a stylisation of form in the landscapes of these years. Anthropomorphising nature and naturalising humanity, line takes over the unifying function for the artist: it is often applied using wax crayons, more infrequently in brilliant gouache - as in the present work. Much like the works of Vincent van Gogh, Thorn Prikker's neo-impressionist landscapes also grasp nature not in terms of a mere given, but as a field for projecting human sensibilities. Set in motion by light and wind, his lines seek to depict the visible and invisible, sometimes seeming to resonate as though they were thus transforming tones into images: “Thorn Prikker seeks the simultaneity and relationships of humanity and nature, of feelings and thoughts, of reality and dream. At the same time, these links are not fixed rigidly and with complete certainty. They are open and ready for further connections. What reveals itself here is not least a reaction to the increasing separation and isolation of all areas of life in the modern world - a reaction that is still or is once again relevant today with its attempts to seek unity in the mythical.” (Julian Heynen, “Schritte nach draußen”, in: exhib. cat. Johann Thorn Prikker: Werke bis 1910, Kaiser Wilhelm Museum Krefeld 1982, p. 7).