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