The King of Thule
The King of Thule c1896 by Belgian Painter Pierre Jean Van der Ouderaa (1841 – 1915); as well as a lithographer of portraits, genre scenes, landscapes and religious subject matter.
This portrait painting is based on the fictional character from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s ballad “Der König in Thule” (“The King in Thule”); which tells a story of a king in the northern European kingdom of Thule; who upon his deathbed, remembers his lost love and throws a golden cup into the sea in remembrance of her.
The piece is considered to be a masterpiece of German Romantic literature and there have been ballad’s and musical scores set to the literary work by several composers including Franz Schubert.
In this painting we see the elderly king in a small room sitting in a large chair by a window that has a cushion placed on the shelf of the enclave with a cabinet above it and a floral embroidered blue drape.
Behind the chair the king is sitting on is a cloth covered table with a gold wine decanter resting on a silver platter that one can assume has been used to fill the large gold goblet that the king is grasping in his right hand up near to his chest.
The elderly king is wearing his crown, a gold signet ring and livery collar, as well as a long heavy silk gown with floral decorations and a red fur padded cloak to keep his fragile old body warm.
The king has a grim sad look on his, and one can see tears running down his face as he seems lost in deep thought of times long since passed.
This is a remastered digital art old masters reproduction of a public domain image that is available for purchase online in a variety of material formats including canvas prints, acrylic prints, metal prints, wood prints, framed prints, posters, and as rolled canvas prints in a variety of size from 12 inches to 72 inches depending on the size of the actual artwork and the print on demand shop you choose to buy the art from.
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