Emil Schumacher

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Overview

Tree VIII, 1980

Oil on canvas
20 × 30 cm
Signed and dated
Provenance:
Estate of Emil Schumacher, Hagen
Literature:
Ulrich Schumacher, Roven Lutz (Hrsg.), Emil Schumacher: Boscone: Faszination Baum, Ausst.-Kat. Emil Schumacher Museum Hagen, Dortmund 2016, Abb. S. 43.
Kunst-Stücke. Eine Ausstellung auf Reisen: München - Köln - Hannpver, Ausst.-Kat. Galerie Koch, Hannover 2025, Kat.-Nr. 2.
Trees have fascinated people for thousands of years and are not only important in myth and religion, but also in painting and poetry. "I honour them," writes Hermann Hesse, "when they live in peoples and families, in forests and groves. I honour them even more when they stand alone. (...) The world rustles in their treetops, their roots rest in the infinite (...). Nothing is more sacred, nothing is more exemplary than a beautiful, strong tree."(1)
One such tree is the small, marvellously mighty "Tree VIII" by Emil Schumacher. It stands there mysteriously, defiantly, somewhat leaning, yet steadfast. It has an inherent magic! Although it seems to open up to the viewer on closer inspection, it still retains its mystery. The picture is reduced to a few colours: black, brown and the sienna brown of the tree dominate the work. Schumacher uses blue and white to create important contrasts to these colours. The surface is relief-like and rounded due to the impasto application of colour. At the top left, the composition appears to open up to the sky, as indicated by the white and blue.
Trees also held a special fascination for Emil Schumacher. Their growth and their rootedness in the ground were their essential characteristics for the painter. But the tree could also be interpreted as a symbol of the connection between earth and sky, between the material object realm and the realm of the mental, the spiritual, because for Emil Schumacher the colour blue meant "sky, above, vastness, going into the distance, immersing oneself in the blue, in the infinite"(2) (Anette Brunner).

1 Hermann Hesse, Trees in: Gesammelte Dichtungen, vol. 3, Frankfurt a.M. 1952, p. 405.
2 Emil Schumacher, Leben in der Malerei, Gespräche und Texte, ed. by Ernst-Gerhard Güse, Ostfildern 2008, p. 129f.