Adolph Schreyer
German, 1828-1899 (active France)

Artillery Shell: War in the Desert, n.d.
oil on canvas
39 3/4 x 62 3/4 in.

SBMA, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John J. Mitchell
1971.1

RESEARCH PAPER

Adolf Schreyer, a nineteenth century German painter, has been described as a student of Romanticism, who was influenced by Realism and early Impressionism and is also identified with Orientalism, Genre and landscape painting. Schreyer combined all of these influences into his own original style.



Adolf Schreyer was born in 1828 in Frankfurt-am-Main to a socially prominent family. He studied art at the Staedel Institute in Frankfurt and then in Stuttgart, Munich and Dusseldorf. During the political ferment of the late 1840’s and early 1850’s Schreyer traveled throughout Europe and by 1854 was a field artist in the Crimean War, observing and illustrating scenes on the Crimean Peninsula, as Russia warred against a coalition of Great Britain, France and Turkey. He traveled extensively throughout his lifetime in Russia, Wallachia (present-day Romania), the Ottoman Empire, Syria, and North Africa. As an artist he achieved early success and was appointed painter to the Court of the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. His many honors included receiving a Brussels medal in 1863, Paris Salon medals in 1864, 1865, and 1867, and being appointed a member of the Academies of Antwerp and Rotterdam. Schreyer lived in Paris from 1862 until the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 precipitated his return to Kronberg, where he continued painting until his death in 1899.



As a student in the nineteenth century art world who traveled extensively and also met and was influenced by most of the major artists of the time, he absorbed well the Romanticism of the early 1900’s, both of the German schools as well as of major French Romantic painters, such as Delacroix and Fromentin. The Courrier Artistique, February 1864, stated, "Schreyer joins to a grand and bold conception a profoundly poetic sentiment; this makes him both German and French. His manner as well as his talent, has two natures; it recalls both Delacroix and Fromentin. His color is a happy mingling of the dreamy tones of the one and the powerful colors of the other. And one should above all admire it for the incontestable originality thus manifested in this mingling…" 



As he traveled throughout Eastern Europe, the Ottoman Empire, and North Africa, he became fascinated with the foreign and exotic subjects he encountered. Early on, he became a master of painting horses in motion and continues to be recognized for his superb portrayals of Arabian horses. He was admired as a realistic recorder of people, everyday life and of geographic characteristics of the land, goals of the developing school of Realism. Because he completed many notebooks of ethnographic studies, his paintings are noted for accuracy of physiognomy, dress, culture and daily scenes in the lives of peoples from the Russian steppes, Wallachia, and North Africa. The French critic, Gautier, praised him highly, stating that few artists were as picturesque, as dramatic, and, at the same time, as realistic. Another contemporary said that he could paint masterpieces as diverse as the swirling, drifting snows on the Steppes of Russia or an Arab crossing the burning sand of the African deserts. "His canvases seem to make you shiver with the intense coldness of the atmosphere when he paints a winter scene, while you languish under the burning sun when he conveys you to the arid atmosphere of the desert." The Paris Courrier Artistique, 1865. 



Because he was known "for his realistic, yet heroic, depiction of horses and peasant life in foreign lands," he was described as a genre painter by some, especially in his intense paintings of Wallachia. His interest in painting the exotic scenes of Ottoman lands and North African Arabs more realistically and with more experimentation with atmosphere and luminosity caused him to be described as the premier German Orientalist. Since most of his works are undated, art historians have looked for transitions in his painting styles to generally place his paintings, noting that his earlier works tend to have tight handling, though they may exhibit loose brushwork, while works done during the 1860’s and 1870’s usually use a darker palette and often depict violent action. In later works, Schreyer adopted a lighter, Impressionist palette, often painting warriors quietly standing or marching in formation. 



The Santa Barbara Museum of Art is fortunate to have such a fine example of his work in "Arab Horse with Rider." The viewer is immediately arrested by the magnificent white horse, caught in dramatic motion, beautifully detailed, luminous in color, which then causes the eye to follow the diagonal to the swirling sand in the lower right of the picture. Our eye then follows up through the more muted white robes of the servant who has fallen but still holds tightly to the reins of his struggling horse. Our eye further catches dots of white in the upper right as the other riders appear to gallop down the hill. The tensory motion of the animals, vivid colorism, and strong, fluid brushwork heighten the danger and excitement of this exotic subject matter. The horizon seems to meld into the far distance, while the threatening sky with its contrasting colors enhances and complements the action and drama of the painting. 

There are different interpretations of this scene. Ronald Kuchta, SBMA Curator, described it thus: "… [an] armed Bedouin’s beautiful Arab stallion has seemingly stumbled into a sandy pit knocking off balance a servant-rider’s black horse who has thrown the red skull-capped servant to the ground…...a minor event of no historical or psychological import… ." Ann Lenard’s doctoral dissertation states that the painting was also titled "War in the Desert." She describes the riders as being in retreat when a shell explodes on the ground, causing the sheik’s horse to almost lose its footing and his servant to fall, perhaps wounded. She continues by suggesting that this painting was typical of works completed during the early 1870’s when more of Schreyer’s paintings showed this high drama and violence. These very different interpretations allow the viewer more range for his own interpretation of this highly dramatic, exciting painting.



Curator Kuchta introduces this painting as fulfilling the nineteenth century’s "taste for pictures of anecdote, exotic lands and costumes, animals and threatening moods of nature" in this North African scene. He describes the painting in these words: "As our eyes scan the dramatically presented subject matter --…-- they are inevitably brought to bear upon the compositional interest of the picture and upon the brilliant colored pigmentation and bravura brushwork which in effect makes the canvas a very sumptuous and mellow thing. The consummate rendering of horse-flesh, of flying turf and of swarthy skins contribute to Schreyer’s reputation as a realist while the agitated gestures of men and horses and the stormy sky harken back to the opulent romanticism of Delacroix." 

Although now one is hard-pressed to find a reference to Adolf Schreyer in English-language contemporary books on nineteenth century European art, during his lifetime he was considered the most outstanding German artist of the nineteenth century by many and was extremely popular well into the early twentieth century, especially among American collectors. His paintings are included in the collections of major museums throughout Germany, France and the United States, as well as in many private collections.

Prepared for the Santa Barbara Museum of Art Docent Council by Irene Stone, April 2003.
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Clara Clement, Artists of the Nineteenth Century and Their Works, p. 245.

Edmund B. Nielsen, Adolf Schreyer, p. 15.

Celeste Lopina, Adolphe Schreyer.

Ann Lenard, Nineteenth-century European Paintings in the Collection of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, p. 88.

Ronald A. Kuchta, Arabian Horseman.

Lenard, Op. Cit.

Kuchta, Op. Cit.

Ibid.


POSTSCRIPT

Earlier the painting was titled "Arabian Horse with Rider".

SBMA CURATORIAL LABELS

Compared favorably to Eugène Delacroix by the critic Théophile Gautier, Schreyer was avidly
collected during his lifetime. Like Delacroix, he spent considerable time in exotic locales such as
Egypt, Syria, and Algiers. The subject of this painting, while partly inspired by his exposure to
Bedouin life, is likely also based on his first-hand experience of the Crimean War, which he was
invited to record by the brother-in-law of Emperor Franz Joseph. Schreyer depicts an Arabian
horse rearing up in panic at the impact of a grenade, nearly unseating his Bedouin rider. His
expressive brushwork, bold use of color, and fascination with heightened emotional states are
typical of Romanticism.

- Ridley-Tree Reopening, 2021