Youth Playing a Lyre to a Maiden by a Fountain

1803

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Dominant colour

Youth Playing a Lyre to a Maiden by a Fountain is a 1803 by Carl Wilhelm I Kolbe, a Romanticism work, depicting Garden, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.

Who painted this?: Carl Wilhelm I Kolbe
When & what style?: 1803 · Romanticism
Where can I see it?: Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

A young man plays a lyre for a woman sitting beside a stone fountain. Around them, giant leaves and vines twist upward, almost swallowing the scene. Kolbe loved painting plants so big they feel like a separate world. Here, the lovers are tiny compared to the towering greenery, as if nature is the real main character. The light picks them out, but the leaves steal the show. If you like this dreamy, overgrown look, check out other works in *germany, 19th century*.

The story of this work

Overview

Youth Playing a Lyre to a Maiden by a Fountain features seated lovers singled out by the light that strikes their upper bodies, which counters the overwhelming scale of the fantastical growth of vegetation surrounding them. Carl Wilhelm Kolbe’s “vegetable sheets” broke new ground in Germany around 1800 by focusing on giant vegetation, allowing the viewer to experience the mysterious life in the undergrowth, a place untouched by humankind. Here, the vegetation is magnified, filling almost the entire sheet, and creating a distorted and somewhat surreal perspective combined with the meticulous…