Autumn Presence (Hinterglaskunst; see info)

More about Autumn Presence (Hinterglaskunst; see info)

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Influence: Franz Marc

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It’s kind of reassuring when you’ve been on the road for more than three weeks and then you get a day that’s not just a morning drizzle, but really rain all day. Realistic, right?! And that kind of weather is just perfect for visiting an exhibition. That’s exactly what I did at Schloss Murnau. What a surprise to see works by Franz Marc, Kandinsky, Paul Klee, among others. And to learn what Hinterglaskunst is all about. (https://schlossmuseum-murnau.de/de/hinterglaskunst/)

So, Hinterglaskunst—or reverse glass painting—is a traditional technique where the artist paints on the back side of a glass panel, putting the fine details first and the background layers last. The glass itself is the “canvas,” so the artwork isn’t framed behind glass—the panel is the painting. You view the finished image through the glass, which gives it a smooth surface and really vivid, luminous colors.

Even though the method goes all the way back to the Middle Ages, it became especially popular as a form of folk art in the 18th and 19th centuries in Bavaria and across the Alpine regions of Central Europe, including Austria, Tyrol, and Bohemia. In Bavaria in particular, reverse glass paintings often showed devotional subjects like saints, Madonnas, or crucifixes, along with floral motifs, animals, and symbolic everyday scenes. This mix of sacred and secular imagery gave the art form both intimacy and a strong regional character.

With love, © Aífe