Gentleman on Horseback and Country Girl

Wilhelm von Kobell painted Bavarian country life in extraordinary clear light. Horsemen, hunters and country people stand on a low horizon under a wide, pale sky, casting long sharp shadows, and every figure is crisp. The effect is calm, bright and a little dreamlike. He was born in Mannheim, the son of the landscape painter Ferdinand Kobell, and studied there before moving with the court to Munich. He was influenced by Dutch and English painting and became court painter and later professor at the Munich Academy. He painted large battle scenes of the Napoleonic wars for the Bavarian crown, including The Third Day of the Battle of Hanau in the Neue Pinakothek, and he was also a fine etcher. His small scenes such as Hunters on Horseback in Upper Bavaria are the ones most loved today. Look at how few objects he needs and how sharply he sets them against the sky.