German 1943 R. Schmidt Woodland Animals Mixed Media Drawing

Regular price $75.00

I'm completely charmed by this animal-packed drawing, with its all-over composition of creatures against solid black ink ground reminding me of some of my favorite Medieval tapestries (I've included one example in photos) and also hand-painted designs on antique Chinese ceramics, ginger jars especially. And what a wonderful cast of  creatures is it--perhaps that owl in the tree and the wild boar best of all!--some of them happily given little patches of green or tiny pools to swim in! I am pretty sure it is German--Windsheim is a small historic town in Bavaria, Germany;  in 1961, it became a spa town and has since been called "Bad Windsheim"--and perhaps the "3 KL" under R. Schmidt's name indicates he or she did this drawing for a class, on September 22, 1943 one assumes. 

There is one small clean tear along the lower left edge, a couple of old fold lines at the bottom left corner, and some age toning and small stains around the edges, all fairly minor; overall good condition. The black field appears to be black ink (all hand-drawn with a pen I think rather than a brush) and the animals rendered in what appears to be a combination of ink and pastel or wax crayon, maybe a little watercolor too. 10 3/4" x 8 1/8".