Painting by Wilhelm Wickertsheimer @museum.de

Fräulein Hildegard, Fräulein Hildegard!

Herr Wickertsheimer! Have you forgotten something?

My hat!

Your hat?

I must have put it down here somewhere...

It’s on the coat stand, hanging right there. Here you are, Herr Wickertsheimer.

Oh, my dear, thank you very much. I’m so glad to have found it. I want to go out into the countryside tomorrow and do a few more sketches of our beautiful scenery. Once I’m back in the studio, I’ll work them up in oils. But all day in the heat of the sun without a hat? That would have been asking for trouble!

You plan to go sketching? In the countryside?

Yes, exactly, in the countryside. In the open air, or "en plein air", as we painters say. Because nothing has such an effect on my sensitive disposition as the natural world here in our beautiful, beloved Black Forest. It’s our home, after all!

Herr Wickertsheimer, I never knew you were such a romantic!

Romantic? Perhaps! Though I lean more towards realistic, naturalistic and newly objective. Because those are the art movements to which I feel most deeply attached, my dear: Realism, Naturalism and the New Objectivity. Vincent van Gogh or Paul Cézanne! Very great artists!

Cézanne? Van Gogh? Never heard of them.

Never mind, it doesn’t matter.

But this, you’re probably familiar with this, aren’t you?

Of course! But that's the square outside – Urteilsplatz! With the Old Town Hall. And the Süßes Löchle...?

Sadly, the Süßes Löchle is not included. Because of the point of view, you know? It would be over there, on the far right, where the two ladies are standing, but just a few more yards up the road.

Yes, exactly, now I see where it would be. It's beautiful, the square. And so is our historic town hall.

But not as beautiful as our local countryside! To which I shall set out bright and early tomorrow morning. With my hat!

With your hat! I’m so glad we found it!

Well then, good luck. Go out and be inspired, Herr Wickertsheimer.

Thank you, Fräulein Hildegard. Goodbye, and I shall see you again very soon!

Till next time, sir!