Hünengrab auf Rügen (Megaithic Tomb on Rügen), Friedrich Preller the Elder; oil on canvas, 44 x 57 inches ( 112 x 146 cm), in the collection of the Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie in Regensburg, Germany. The link is to a page on Wikimedia Commons with a link to the large image.
In this wonderfully dramatic painting by the 19th century German artist Friedrich Preller the Elder, the “megalitic tomb” of the title is the dark mass of a large set of arranged stones to the right of the foreground. If you look closely, there is a bird perched atop the central stone (images above, bottom). [A “megalith” is a large stone often used in monuments, such as Stonehenge.]
In the intensely theatrical lighting arrangement, the land and sky at left are so far into the dark of the storm they appear as nighttime. In contrast, there is a brightly lit area of sea and shore to the right that is illuminated by shafts of light breaking through the clouds.
Since the title doesn’t mention the storm, we don’t actually know if the storm is leaving or arriving; though I would tend to assume it’s leaving.
In the middle of it all, the inexorable focus of our attention — the spindly, twisting, partly overgrown, partly dead tree itself — is partially subsumed into the dark, partially gently mid-lit, and strikingly highlighted in the form of the bright bare branches.
This is a painting that controls your eye. You can’t help but look where the artist wants you to look. It’s also nicely spooky. Happy Friday the 13th!
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