This expressive early 20th-century German oil painting depicts a female nude lost in reverie.

Sprawled atop silken waters, she’s inert amid the transience of nature. Gazing towards an imposing wood with hazy blue forms. Beyond, the silvery distance is a curtain of ethereal mist. While the glistening sheets in the foreground slip into the ether.

Little is known about the artist of this enchanting piece, which is unusual given its remarkable quality. It appears to be inspired by the ‘Symbolist’ movement of the late 19th-century. The Symbolists, such as Gustave Moreau and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (1824-1898), produced fantastical, often dreamlike, scenes as a reaction to the gritty ‘realist’ painters. Ideas were expressed through rhythm, suggestion and colour. They created a world within their own imagination. An expansion of consciousness.

Intriguingly, the composition also bears some resemblance to Eugène Delacroix’s ‘Bacchante Endormie Dans Un Paysage’.

Signed in the lower right and held within a splendid gilt frame.

Medium: Oil on panel
Overall size: 12½” x 11” / 32cm x 28cm
Year of creation: c. 1930
Provenance: Private collection, Germany.
Condition: Artwork presents well. Frame with some light wear.