Lukas Kirner

The accurate rendering of traditional costumes makes it possible to associate them with specific localities and provides insight into changes of fashion. Here, the bodice embroidered with flowers, the yellow top hat, and the colorful, striped fringed shawl of the young woman allow us to identify her costume as the traditional dress of Furtwangen. In the early 18th century, Furtwangen and its environs boasted flourishing industries in the production of clock shields and straw hats. With improved economic conditions, demand increased among the people of the Black Forest for representative portraits. Self-assured entrepreneurs as well as proud farmers and citizens sat for portraits by local artists. These depictions are often characterized by a high degree of authenticity; rather than beautifying and idealizing their subjects, artists made efforts to portray them as realistically as possible. The identity of the young woman who gazes at the viewer with flushed cheeks and a slightly pinched smile came to light by chance: when visiting the exhibition "Schwarzwald-Geschichten" (Stories from the Black Forest 2019), the great-great-granddaughter of the woman in the painting recognised her as her great-great-grandmother owing to the fact that her family owns a similar portrait. Katharina Werle and her husband ran the Gasthaus Adler and posthouse (now the town hall) in Furtwangen. She seems uncomfortable posing for a portrait, and she holds her right arm somewhat stiffly in front of her body. Her hand is adorned with fine golden rings, and a black band holds the yellow top hat on her head. Its ribbons extend down over the colorful, striped fringed shawl which is pinned together with a brooch at her left shoulder. The painting is attributed to Lukas Kirner. Kirner was trained as a clock shield painter and then, like many other Black Forest artists of his time, turned to portrait painting. Between 1830 and 1850 Kirner enjoyed a reputation as the best portrait painter “in the forest.” His clientele consisted above all of prosperous farming families and tradespeople from the region around Furtwangen. He painted nothing but portraits his entire life, unlike his younger and now better-known brother Johann Baptist Kirner (1806-1866), who achieved fame as a Black Forest genre painter. MIRJA STRAUB (Transl. MELISSA THORSON)