Hermann Dischler
Baldenweger Hut on the Feldberg, 1904
About the object
Although covered with heavy snow, the Baldenweger cabin is still visible. The low-pitched roof merges almost seamlessly with the snowy landscape in the composition. Built as a peasant cabin for livestock husbandry in summer, tourists became interested in it towards the end of the 19th century and it remains a popular destination for hikers and skiers today.
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Hermann Dischler was attracted to the wintry landscape again and again. Here the Baldenweger Hut lies under deep snow, with only a small section of the façade visible. The low-hanging roof blends seamlessly into the snowy landscape, while lonely ski tracks suggest that the hut is not abandoned. Originally built to serve farmers in the care of livestock at high altitudes in the summertime, the Baldenweger Hut became a tourist attraction already in the late 19th century. Today it is still a popular destination for excursions and an outpost for hikers and skiers. Dischler is known as the “snow painter,” and with good reason. He handles the range of white tones with virtuosic skill; the play of fine color gradations continues even into the sky, where the clouds promise additional snowfall. For this motif, Dischler probably worked from a photograph, which he projected as a black-and-white slide onto the canvas in his studio. This approach helped him achieve the nuanced structure of gray and white tones in the snowy landscape. TILMANN VON STOCKHAUSEN (Transl. MELISSA THORSON)