European hare (Dürer)

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European hare (Albrecht Dürer)
Brown hare
Albrecht Dürer , 1502
Watercolor, opaque colors, heightened with white
25.1 x 22.6 cm
Albertina, Vienna

The brown hare , also known as the hare or young hare , is the title of a watercolor by Albrecht Dürer and is probably the best-known of all Dürer's nature studies, created in 1502.

description

The brown hare is shown on the almost square paper in the falling diagonal from top left to bottom right in a crouching position. Following this diagonal, the hare looks into the space outside the picture surface. This gives the view in three-quarter profile. The head, the ears and the chest are shown from below, the back and the hind leg from above. This shows all the essentials of the rabbit's complexity. The primer is watercoloured and ranges from fawn to gray-brown to off-white. The rhythmically structured layers of hair are placed on this foundation. However, they are less ornamental than in Dürer's self-portrait from 1500, for example. The drawing of the hair illustrates the stretching of the fur in the crouching position and also the soft, shiny feel of the fur.

The ears are drawn tighter. The brushwork is short and sweet. The right ear, which is the left from the observer's point of view, is bent back, but turned outwards. Together with the eye, which is also turned towards the viewer, it symbolizes animal perception. A cross window is reflected in the eye . The left ear - like the left eye - is turned away from the viewer. The shadow of the hare and the long whiskers on the upper lip and eyes also fall into the invisible space into which this eye looks .

No seating area or surroundings are shown. Nevertheless, the rabbit gives the impression that it is sitting still for the moment you look at it. The art historian Elisabeth M. Trux writes:

“The timeless appeal of this sheet lies in the skilfully staged ambivalence between static, visible presence and movement and escape latency. [...] After every look it is surprising that the brown hare is still waiting. "

Emergence

The brown hare is not shown as an attribute and probably without symbolic meaning in this picture, but is used solely for the natural presentation.

It can practically be ruled out that Dürer drew and painted a live hare. The window cross reflected in the hare's eye - a topos of portrait painting that Dürer had taken from Dutch painting - indicates that the animal is in the house.

There are other representations of hares in Dürer. This includes:

  • The Holy Family with the three hares , a woodcut by Dürer from the Dresden Kupferstichkabinett from 1497.
  • A hare is shown on the copper engraving “ Adam and Eve ” from the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett from 1504.

history

Hare by the painter Hans Hoffmann with Dürer's monogram and the year 1528 , the year of Dürer's death

Already in the 16th century and especially around 1600 there was a large number of repetitions and imitations. Thirteen are known today, including three free variants that show a rabbit from the front. Hans Hoffmann copied Dürer's works, including the field hare, on the other hand he also modified the image by depicting the hare in the forest or in an ornamental garden. This initiated the creation of the animal piece, a new type of image.

The brown hare is the most prominent object in the Albertina . A copy can be seen in the permanent exhibition. According to an agreement with the monument office, the original is only issued twice every five years. To this day, it marks materials for art supplies.

In 2002, on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of its dating, as well as during the Dürer exhibition in 2003 in the Albertina, the picture aroused great interest in the public and in the media.

The Madrid Prado Museum had lent the Albertina the famous Dürer self-portrait from 1498 for the major Dürer exhibition in 2003 and in 2005 received the brown hare for the exhibition “ Durero - Obras Maestras de la Albertina ” in return . The rental was controversial because the export license was applied for too late. The brown hare stayed in Madrid for the entire duration of the exhibition. The brown hare was not included in a 2013 loan of Dürer's works to the National Gallery of Art , Washington, USA . After 10 years, the original was on view from March 14 to June 29, 2014 in the exhibition “The Founding of the Albertina - Between Dürer and Napoleon”.

During the Long Night of the Museums from October 1, 2016, 6:00 p.m. to October 2, 1:00 a.m., the brown hare was shown for seven hours in the Albertina. A large Dürer exhibition took place in the Albertina from September 20, 2019 to January 6, 2020.

The "gigapixel" recording used here comes from the Google Cultural Institute. In February 2016, an Austrian 5 euro collector's coin was launched with the brown hare as a motif.

literature

  • Albrecht Dürer 1471 to 1528. Catalog raisonné . The entire graphic work. Volume 1: Hand Drawings. Munich, 3rd edition, 1971, p. 284. With an introduction by Wolfgang Ett.
  • Heinz Widauer: Brown hare. In: KA Schröder, ML Sternath: Albrecht Dürer . Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern-Ruit 2003, ISBN 3-7757-1330-1 , p. 268.
  • Elisabeth M. Trux: Reflections on the field hare and other animal studies by Dürer with a dating discussion. In: KA Schröder, ML Sternath: Albrecht Dürer . Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern-Ruit 2003, ISBN 3-7757-1330-1 , pp. 45-55.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hand drawings, p. 284.
  2. ↑ a b Heinz Widauer: Brown hare. 2003.
  3. ^ Albertina Online: Feldhase , 2013
  4. ↑ a b c E. M. Trux: Considerations on the field hare. 2003.
  5. ^ Elisabeth M. Trux: Investigation of Albrecht Dürer's animal studies . Ergon, Würzburg 1993, p. 136, note 156.
  6. ↑ Finally: The real Dürer rabbit! In: Wiener Bezirkszeitung - Alsergrund . No. 13 . Vienna March 26, 2014, p. 12 .
  7. ↑ DW Kultur: “Dürer's field hare illegally traveling” - 2005
  8. ↑ Die Presse: “Brown Hare: End of the Affair” - 2005
  9. ↑ ART Heftarchiv - 2005  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.art-magazin.de  
  10. ↑ Heute.at: "Albertina lends 118 Dürer works to the US Museum" - 2013
  11. ↑ Dürer-Hase can be seen for seven hours orf.at, September 16, 2016, accessed September 17, 2016.
  12. ↑ Austrian Mint