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Art History – Modern Art – Artist: Adalbert Stifter

Joachim Rodriguez y Romero
Joachim Rodriguez y Romero

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1805–1868, the Austrian writer is considered one of the most important authors of the Biedermeier period . Generations of schoolchildren would rather argue for the title of “most boring author on the planet”—with a string of sentences over 60 words long, like this one:

“Glancing even more brightly through the fragrant blue forest ridges, it lies wedged in the valley's curves, visible from afar, first a thread of light, then a fluttering band, and finally a broad silver belt wound around the arch of the dark forest bosom – then, before it once again wets the black fir and pine roots, it springs forth for moments into a bright valley, which is opened like a tender eye in the mournful forest darkness all around.”
Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller - Portrait of Adalbert Stifter
Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller – Portrait of Adalbert Stifter

(Der Hochwald, page 1) actually shows even the most enthusiastic German teacher his limits…

Stifter himself was active as an educator at the time; the article by literary scholar Albrecht Koschorke, “Education for Suicide: Adalbert Stifter’s Pedagogical Realism” (d-nb.info/1095781669/34), hopefully does not provide a definitive answer regarding the success of his efforts.

Stifter is less well known as an art lover and active in the arts: From 1853 onwards, as the state conservator for Upper Austria, he ensured the preservation and restoration of beautiful works of art such as the Kefermarkt winged altarpiece; the survival of the cityscape of Steyr is also said to be partly due to Stifter.

Gothic winged altarpiece
Gothic Kefermarkt winged altarpiece
Steyr Panorama Winter
Steyr Panorama Winter
by Christianhandl [CC BY-SA 3.0]

During the 1850s, Stifter also worked with founding president Johann Nepomuk Count Ungnad von Weißenwolff to establish the Upper Austrian Art Association and to acquire art for the Upper Austrian State Gallery (the first gallery in the entire German-speaking world that originated from and was dedicated to the people).

Stifter began painting early on; chronologically ordered images of his paintings from 1823 until shortly before his death can be viewed here: Bibliotheca Augustana: The painted oeuvre ; a successful reflection on his short and unfulfilled life is presented in the following video:

Stifter is still, at least occasionally, part of the reading repertoire for anyone who wants to grasp the art of the German language beyond the superficial level. However, he has become obsolete as a direct role model simply because the attention span of the average Twitter-savvy reader barely extends to the first comma in a Stifter sentence.

For this purpose, Stifter wrote the most beautiful literary gift idea for sadists: "Indian Summer,"1000 pages with guaranteed less plot than Musil's "The Man Without Qualities," in which the tormented reader eventually "counts the individual words as they drip down into the ocean of eternity"(referring to a Stifter quote in which he spoke of hearing and silence and minutes).

It is rather surprising that nutritionists have not yet discovered Adalbert Stifter as a cautionary tale: With six meals a day, a second breakfast of schnitzel with potato salad, six trout as a starter and a three-course main course including a whole roast duck, he purposefully ate himself into cirrhosis of the liver, in order to end his life at 62 in deep depression – rarely is it demonstrated so precisely and comprehensibly what the delicious roast from the pan and oven can do to the entire metabolism.

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