George Elbert Burr, born Monroe Falls, - St. Goar from Castle Rheinfels - 1900 - T-Shirt

This is a pencil sketch of the riverside town of St. Goar, seen from high ground above a bend of the Rhine.

Visual Elements & Composition

The town sits along the near bank at lower right, a cluster of steep-roofed houses with a large church and its tall spire rising above them. Small boats float on the water, which runs away to the left between wooded, terraced hillsides. A towered castle sits on a crest at upper left, and a line of low houses runs along the far shore. The drawing uses light, fine strokes, with the slopes built up in soft hatching and a wide, open sky. The title inscription in the lower right reads St. Goar from Castle Rheinfels, and the sheet is dated Sep. 5, 1900.

Meaning & Symbolism

The sketch shows a settled town held within a dramatic gorge, with the river drawing the eye from the foreground into the distance. Travellers and artists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries widely pictured the castled hills and riverside towns of the middle Rhine, and this view belongs to that tradition. George Elbert Burr, born in Monroe Falls, made the drawing directly from the motif as one of his travel and topographical studies. Its exact handling of architecture and its open treatment of sky and hills give the scene its calm, panoramic mood.

Designed for the Chest

A view taken from above suits a shirt, since the wearer looks down at the print as naturally as the artist looked down at the town. The river runs across the front of the tee, carrying the eye from the foreground outward, while the castle and church stay in view at the top and centre of the layout. Each line of the pencil work reads clearly at this scale, so the town and its gorge stay legible on the body.