The Banks of the Spree near Stralau
by SCHINKEL, Karl Friedrich, Oil on canvas, 36 x 45 cm
On a stretch of the Spree popular with river trippers from Berlin, two horn players are ferried across after a day’s festivities. At evening, their work, like the fishing on the river, is done, and their passage home becomes an image of human life, a crossing with connotations of death, leading to a mysterious end.
Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 4 minutes):
Franz Schubert: Auf Dem Wasser Zu Singen (To Be Sung On The Water), Franz Liszt’s transcription