George Elbert Burr, born Monroe Falls, - The Drachenfels, Rhine - 1900 - T-Shirt

A graphite pencil study of the Drachenfels, the steep crag rising out of the calm Rhine, drawn directly from the motif in 1900.

Visual Elements & Composition

The composition runs as a broad horizontal panorama. The crag fills the far bank in a sequence of broken ridges, its face built up with short diagonal hatching and its crest marked by a small structure near the summit. Wooded slopes frame the view at left and right, and a dark rowing boat sits on the water near the left edge. Horizontal strokes lay down reflections and faint ripples across the river, while the sky above the hill is left almost bare. The palette is restrained: warm off-white paper, pencil gray, and graphite black. The title is inscribed in the lower right and the artist's signature sits in the lower left.

Meaning & Symbolism

The Drachenfels stands above the river near Bonn and is one of the most recognisable landmarks of the middle Rhine. Its legend of a dragon slain by a hero, and the ruined castle on its summit, made it a favourite subject for travellers who followed the river by steamer and on foot. George Elbert Burr, born in Monroe Falls, made this sketch as one of his topographical studies of the Rhine. He gives the crag the role of monument: its steep mass rising from the water is the defining feature of the view, and the economy of his handling of water and hillside keeps the eye on its outline.

Made for the Shirt

A landscape this wide reads best at a distance, and a tee carries it across the chest, where the crag, the boat and the long line of the river can be taken in at a glance. The drawing's quiet, open sky suits the plain front of a shirt, letting the pencil lines of the hill and water do the work.