Gothic Windows in the Ruins of the Monastery at Oybin

Carl Gustav Carus

ca. 1828 · Oil on canvas · European Paintings

This church, with its fine Gothic tracery, was founded in 1369, deserted in 1546, and later embraced as a motif by German Romantic artists. Carus visited in August 1820, making a drawing (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden) that served as a study for the painting. It depicts a vista through two windows—one on either side of the ruined choir—toward a pale morning sky and distant hill. In its starkness and opposition of dark and light, and with young trees referring to the cycle of life, the image invites both hope and meditation.

Artist

Carl Gustav Carus

Date

ca. 1828

Medium

Oil on canvas

Department

European Paintings

Credit line

Purchase, 2005 Benefit Fund, and Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation and Eugene V. Thaw Gifts, 2007