Mary Kirschbaum - Woman by a Lake at Sunset, c. 1890

Mary Kirschbaum, Sweden Woman by a Lake at Sunset, c. 1890 signed oil on canvas unframed 23 × 33 cm (9.1 × 13 in) framed 33 × 43 cm (13 × 16.9 in) Provenance: Private collection, Sweden. Condition Report: Recently professionally conserved. The painting is in very good condition with clear and well preserved colours. Presented in a newly made gilded frame, included with the work. Essay: This intimate landscape, painted around 1890, depicts a solitary woman seated beneath a tree overlooking a tranquil lake at sunset. A small wooden jetty and moored boats occupy the centre of the composition,, while the distant shoreline is silhouetted against a sky glowing in delicate shades of pink, violet and pale blue. The seated figure is particularly important to the atmosphere of the painting. Turned away from the viewer, she appears absorbed in contemplation of the lake and fading evening light. Her small scale emphasizes the surrounding landscape and lends the scene a quiet, almost private character, as though the viewer has unexpectedly encountered a moment of solitude. Kirschbaum handles the changing light with considerable sensitivity. The pink sunset is reflected across the still surface of the lake, while the tree and foreground remain in deeper greens and browns. The overhanging branches frame the view naturally and lead the eye toward the brilliant band of colour along the horizon. Very little biographical information concerning Mary Kirschbaum has so far been securely established, and her birthdates remain unknown. The present painting nevertheless reveals a technically accomplished artist working within the late nineteenth century tradition of landscape painting. Its combination of sunset light, still water and the solitary female figure gives this small work a particularly poetic quality.