August Oppenberg: in the fields !

August Oppenberg 

(1896-1971)

German painter and printmaker.

August Oppenberg is in Germany a very appreciated artist although with a regional status as a painter and printmaker. Nevertheless he is rewarded his own entry in the Wikipedia(*). He started, lived and worked and closed his life in the region near the city of Wesel in the Province of Nieder-Rhein (Lower-Rhine). Roughly between Arnhem (Netherlands) and Duisburg (Germany).

Living some 300 km north, and in a neighboring country, I suppose I would never have heard of August Oppenberg hadn't I stumbled over this etching that wasn't very successful in finding a new owner in our local Ebay. But I could not help falling instantly in love with it. Had it been a scribble by Vincent (why not ?) it would have been priceless.  

It's better then anything else August produced in his 75 years on the planet, I honestly believe, excavating the internet for images and examples of his artistic achievements. But this is all my personal opinion. It's actually more a drawing (on a plate) then it shows a proper etching. The cleverly constructed long diagonal and the sloping horizon giving it a great perspective and feeling of space. 
   

Millet, les Glaneuses: gathering the last remains of the weat-harvest spoiling nothing. 

August must have known one of Vincent van Gogh's (1853-1890) many Provence weat-field paintings. And/or the "Glaneuses" (Gleaners) by Vincent's inspiration Jean Francois Millet (1814-1875) the French Barbizon painter-etcher and forerunner of the Impressionists. Also knicked by his friend Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)(r.)   

Weat harvesting remained practically unchanged before it was taken out of our hands by combine-machines. From the dark ages and Pieter Bruegel's  the elder (c.1525-1569) 1565 masterpiece until these photographical recordings from not that long ago, the beginning of my era. A family and village business. 

And thanks to August Oppenberg I've met this wonderful Polish painter: Wlodzimierz Tetmajer (1861-1923). Warmed by his glowing palet and uncomplicated rural scenes of summers and days gone by I'll have to honor him with his own posting soon. 

All pictures borrowed freely from the Internet for friendly, educational and noncommercial use only.