Johann Wilhelm Schirmer ranks among the great innovators of landscape painting in Germany in the 19th century. In a breathtaking way, he was capable of capturing nature in his oil studies. His early sea study shows the moving sea at the coast of Normandy in 1836 (still three years before photographic techniques were made public), with all the characteristics of an immediate snapshot in time. The close framing of the picture emphasizes the intensity of the natural spectacle: the grey-green waves rolling in and the wild spume in the foreground and on the rock on the right, which only minimally but effectively accentuates the composition. The viewing angle onto the water is so close and steep that the eye is offered only an unusually small strip of sky on the horizon.
约翰-威廉-席尔默 (Johann Wilhelm Schirmer) 是19世纪德国风景画的伟大创新者之一。在他的油画研究中，他以一种令人惊叹的方式捕捉自然。他早期关于海洋的作品展示了1836年诺曼底海岸运动中的海洋——三年后摄影技术才公诸于众——但他的作品已具备了即时快照的所有特征。画面的近距离取景强调了自然景观的真实性：灰绿色波浪滚滚而来，狂野的泡沫散布于前景与右侧岩石上，最低限度却有效地强调了整个构图。投向水面的视角如此靠近且陡峭，以至于只有一小条地平线上的天空映入眼帘。
Schirmer's painting is part of a whole series of similar illusionistic studies, which reveal his great artistry. Apart from his talent for faithfully reproducing various states of geological structures, water, and light down to the last detail, there were two other aspects that were important here: firstly, his sensitive power of observation, which consistently lead Schirmer into nature to train his eye, and secondly, an enormous intellectual power of abstraction, which becomes particularly evident in the sea study. When painting in front of nature, the artist alternately looks at the motif and at his painting cardboard. In this case, Schirmer stood directly on the shore and watched the waves swiftly rolling in. Each time he looked up from the picture, however, the situation he had just observed had changed. Thus, Schirmer captured countless moments with his eyes, which he finally assembled into a small painting of an astonishing and compelling nature that seems to us to be a single moment.
席尔默的绘画是整套类似幻觉研究系列的一部分，这彰显了他伟大的艺术才能。除了忠实再现地质结构，水与各种光线状态的天赋，还有其他两个重要的能力: 首先是敏锐的观察力，使席尔不断进入自然来训练他的眼睛，其次是充满智慧的抽象能力，这在海洋研究中尤为明显。当位于自然面前作画时，画家交替看向主题事物与绘画纸板。就像这幅画，席尔默直接立于海岸，看着海浪迅速翻滚而来。然而, 每次他从画中抬头时，刚才观察到的景象已发生改变。于是，席尔默通过双眼捕捉到无数类似的瞬间，最后将它们组合成一幅令人惊叹、引人入胜的画作，以至于在我们看来，这幅画好似一瞬间的事。
We present today's painting thanks tothe Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe. :)
感谢德国卡斯鲁赫国立艺术馆与我们分享今天的画作。:)
