Impressions of Autumn
JW 79 14 VILLAGE PATH WITH WOOD HOUSE AND FIR-TREES, Watercolour, 1945, 420 mm x 320 mm.
29. October 2026
VILLAGE PATH WITH WOOD HOUSE AND FIR-TREES, painted on October 14, 1945, in Gars am Kamp, in Lower Austria, offers an insight into the nature-based development of the then 16-year-old artist. Harry Rand wrote about the work in 1986 in Hundertwasser, The Painter:
Text (translated): Harry Rand: Hundertwasser der Maler [H. Rand, Hundertwasser - Der Maler, München, 1986, pl. 10 (c), p. 164], Text: p. 17.
“Village Path with Wood House and Fir-Trees radiates with a magical serenity and inviting atmosphere: from this perspective, we follow the downward curve of the road past the small houses, finding ourselves unexpectedly in the centre of the pictorial space. This astoundingly complex perspective seems too refined, as if it spawned from the imagination of an isolated child—the compact spatiality is rather reminiscent of Paul Cézanne. Cézanne himself adapted this geometric clarity of spatial organisation from Camille Pissarro; for the young Austrian, however, the question arises as to where and how he learned to organize his pictorial volumes with such absolute and unerring accuracy.”
The lively wooden cabin, the winding, unpaved path, and the harmonious intertwining of architecture and vegetation point toward essential motifs of Hundertwasser’s ecologically conscious philosophy, as well as a deep perception of nature, which, as this composition demonstrates, were undoubtedly present from a young age.Text (translated): Harry Rand: Hundertwasser der Maler [H. Rand, Hundertwasser - Der Maler, München, 1986, pl. 10 (c), p. 164], Text: p. 17.