TRÜBNER, Wilhelm
(b. 1851, Heidelberg, d. 1917, Karlsruhe)

On the Sofa

1872
Oil on canvas, 52 x 45 cm
Nationalgalerie, Berlin

This canvas was painted when Trübner shared a studio with Thoma in 1872. The domestic scene has a proto-Matisse-like quality in the way the painter revels in a wealth of scintillating pattern - the red tablecloth, the blue patterned wall, the beflowered sofa cover. The painting, far more than decorative, shares a psychological penetration with works of other artists of Trübner generation, including Degas, Fantin-Latour, and Whistler.