Maximilián Schurmann — Espalion — Sower

The tiny print portrays a sower working in a field. His monumental figure with legs spread wide is positioned in the centre of the composition, with his left hand holding a wrap-around tarp with seeds and sowing with the right one. The background shows shrubs, as if bending in the wind, and a cloudy sky. Schurmann was able to use his masterful skills to capture the light, mood and movement on the tiniest of surfaces. It is apparent in the play of light and shadow on the field furrows and the clouds. The sower’s face is hidden in the shadow of his hat, the dark pants are in contrast with his bright shirt, his stretched-out hand is depicted in more light and detail of the foreground. All of it gives the image its depth and dynamics. The hatching is more relaxed and energised as the artist opted for fresh, sketch-like ruggedness instead of filigree precision. 

In 1914, Schurmann studied in Paris, where he met Claude Monet and even painted in his Giverny garden. Impressionism had only a short-term influence on his work, but a very intensive one, even though at that time it was already considered anachronistic from the perspective of European art. The print could not have shown the full potential of his work with colour, a very important element in this artistic style, but his work with light allows us to categorise the Sower from Nitra Gallery’s collection as a part of Schurmann’s impressionistic phase. Not long after that, he would start leaning back toward academism that formed him during his studies in Vienna. This course of development was influenced by World War I, the artist’s multiple-year stay in a prison camp, the hopelessness of his current situation, unclear future, lost contacts, shortage of confrontations with other artists and lack of new creative impulses.

There is the word “Espalion” written in the bottom left corner of the print. It is a small French town in the department of Aveyron in the region of Midi-Pyrénées where Schurmann spent four long years (1914 – 1918) in an internment camp where he was placed during World War I as a citizen of another nationality and civilian prisoner of war. The camp was located in an ancient monastery.¹ It was most likely the Bonneval Abbey located in a valley about 7 kilometres from Espalion. The monastery was founded in 1147 by Cistercian monks who lived there until the French Revolution when they were driven away and the monastery was sold in 1791. In 1875, Cistercian nuns (Trappistines) started its restoration and they have operated it ever since, performing various activities, including fine chocolate production.²

There is very little known about Schurmann’s stay in the internment camp as he “did not leave behind a single line of his views or thoughts.”³ Schurmann’s record is publicly accessible as a part of online archived records of prisoners of war.⁴ It is interesting to note that it states his birthplace was Vörösmajor, which is a former name of Hviezdoslavov, a neighbouring village to his official place of birth. Zdena Dvořáková writes about his life in the camp: “He paints constantly, mostly portraits for which he receives the most valuable reward – groceries, a certain level of freedom of movement and material he can use for further work. He created about 200 portraits during the period of his internment. They stayed in France as private property and today they are considered missing. […] when he wanted to paint, which was the meaning of his life, he had to focus on portraits. The local higher class along with the officers wanted to make use of a skilled artist, so they did not prevent him from working. And so the local residents could often see the artist walking toward the house of a person being portrayed, always escorted by armed guards.”⁵

No portraits from this period have been preserved, but the collections of the Nitra Gallery or the Slovak National Gallery include aquarelles, drawings and sketches capturing mostly nature and landscapes from around Espalion or the everyday life of people in the camp. What makes the Sower etching unique is that it depicts a local person at work and his body is the predominant element, not just a small figure somewhere in the landscape. Similar agricultural themes are rather rare in Schurmann’s portfolio as he mostly focused on landscapes, urban vistas, still lifes and mostly portraits. 

Another interesting fact is that the Sower was made using the line etching technique. Schurmann’s prints with Espalion themes are not a part of Slovak galleries’ collections, which makes this a rather rare exception. Etching is a printing technique where a copper or zinc plate covered with a special waxy ground is scratched with an etching needle. The plate is then dipped in a bath of nitric acid which bites into the unprotected metal parts. The plate is then inked and put through a high-pressure printing press. Is it possible that an artist in an internment camp had access to the technology and materials necessary for producing such a technically challenging work? It is highly unlikely. The print is not dated, so it is possible it was based on a sketch or a drawing made in Espalion, but actually produced later after the war, either in Paris or in Slovakia.