Gouache on paper
Signed and dated '21 June 1899', lower left
33 x 53 cm
A dreamy, poetic moonlight falls over the seas beyond the ruins of Visby on the island of Gotland in Sweden. To the left the remains of the Church of St Goran and to the right, atop the hill, the old gallows, both dating to the 13th century. The scene is embued with a quiet spirituality and a strong sense of place and its deep and lengthy history. The name itself suggests a long prehistoric past - Visby coming from the Old Norse Vis, meaning (pagan) place of sacrifices, and by meaning village.
Born in Dessau in present-day East Germany, Otto Strützel was the second son of a master tailor, Leopold, who championed his early talent. He went on to study at the Kunstschule in Leipzig from 1871. After completing military service, he went on to the Düsseldorf Art Academy in 1879 to study under the painter Eugen Dücker. In 1885, he married the Swedish Maria Ahlström, travelling regularly to Sweden thereafter, at which point his work took on a more Scandanadivan sensibility, clearly visbile in the present work.
