In the precision of light - selected paintings by Wilhelm Leibl

 

Dachauerin (girl from Dachau, 1879.

Kopf eines Bauernmädchens (head of a peasant girl), 1880.

Kopf eines Blinden (head of a blind man), circa 1866-67.

Kopf des Mädchens (head of a girl), 1897

Tierarzt Reindl in der Laube (the veterinarian Reindl in the arbor), circa 1890.

In Erwartung (in anticipation), 1898.

Zwei Köpfe - Die Wilderer (two heads - the poachers), circa 1882-86. Cropped by the artist himself from a much larger composition.

Kopf eines Bauernmädchens (head of a peasant girl), 1879.

Portrait of the doctor Friedrich Rauert, 1877.

Bauernjunge auf einem Stuhl sitzend (peasant boy sitting on a chair), circa 1864-65.

Portrait of the painter Carl Schuch, 1876.

Mädchen mit weißem Kopftuch (girl with white headscarf), circa 1876-77.

Bildnis einer alten Frau (portrait of an old woman), circa 1875.

Kleinkind mit weißem Kopftuch (toddler with a white headscarf), circa 1876.

Wilhelm Maria Hubertus Leibl (23 October 1844, Cologne - 4 December 1900, Würzburg), German realist painter of portraits and scenes of peasant life. The son of the director of the Cathedral choir, he was apprenticed to a locksmith before beginning his artistic training with a local painter; he entered the Munich Academy in 1864. In 1869, Gustave Courbet visited Munich to exhibit his work, making a considerable impression on the younger artist. Courbet suggested he visit Paris, where he was introduced to Édouard Manet, but was forced to return to Germany the following year, due to the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War. In 1873 he left Munich for the Bavarian countryside, where he depicted the local peasants in unsentimental portraits and genre scenes. These are the paintings he is best remembered for, the work displaying a clarity of light and precision of drawing that draws comparisons with that of Hans Holbein the Younger and other of the Northern Renaissance painters.