Garden Terrace

The painting "Garden Terrace" was completed in 1811-1812 and shows a symmetrically constructed peaceful garden with a woman deepening in a book. In the foreground of the painting are two chestnut trees, which at the same time form an inner framework and invite you to look at the landscape behind them, because it offers a beautiful view: the soft mountain vistas and wooded hills. Two of these hills hide a few houses and a castle. The sky is clear, there is not a single cloud to see. The mountain hills bathe in the bright light. But before our eyes reach this nature, it hits the small garden fence and the associated gate. Two lying lion statues protect this gate. But they are not the only figures of this painting. Inside the garden stands a stone statue in the middle of the flower bed. Under the right tree sits a woman reading a book leaning against the tree. She's dressed in a dark dress and her hair is pinned up. Next to her is a basket covered with a red cloth. The reader shows her back to the viewer; her face is not visible. With this position, she invites you to enjoy the excellence of nature that is present in front of her. Everything seems so calm that one gets the feeling that not a single disturbance is possible in such an idyll. A suitable place to read a book without hindrance, like the woman in the picture.

As a basis for the foreground one could consider the preliminary drawing "Two Trees" (Park Outlook) by Caspar David Friedrich. It was further elaborated by renouncing a picture of the pond and its leading path. Presumably, a landscape sketch, which was made by the painter on the mountain hike on July 6, 1810, as a template for the representation of the background.