Snowy landscape, path to the rock domes (Felsendomen)

Schmidt-Rottluff painted this snowy landscape in the winter of 1946/47 in his studio in Berlin. However, it is a reminder of his home in Chemnitz. Experts and residents of the Rabenstein district assume that this motif refers to a rocky landscape on Rabenstein's Hoppberg. Incidentally, Hoppberg comes from Hopfenberg, as hops used to be grown on the formerly unwooded mountain. Other opinions now say that it could also be the quarry on Kupferberg, which today stretches behind the Schmidt-Rottluff ensemble along the Pleißenbach stream and the highway. There are birch trees there - but not on the Hoppberg. What is certain is that Schmidt-Rottluff was often out and about in nature and in the surrounding forests during the years he lived in Chemnitz during the war in order to find motifs or collect wood for heating. The familiar forest also gave him the opportunity to avoid pursuers who wanted to check the ban on painting imposed on him by the Nazis. So there was a hidden door in the old fence at the country house that opened the way to nature for him unnoticed.

The center of the painting is formed by mossy rocks hidden under the remains of snow. Birch and beech trees cut the composition vertically. In this narrow section of the picture, the depth of the forest landscape leading back to the left can only be guessed at. It is a tranquil view of this small piece of nature that seems to hold so much new life. Overall, Schmidt-Rottluff painted numerous pictures of the nature of his homeland and other regions he visited throughout his life.

Year 1947
Material / technique oil on canvas

(Source: Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Werke in den Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, published by Ingrid Mössinger in 2015 as an inventory catalog of the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz)
www.kunstsammlungen-chemnitz.de