An Art Student in Munich

An Art Student in Munich

Howitt, Anna Mary

London: Longman, Brown, Green, & Longmans, 1853

Internet Archive

1853

“Monday 12. After reading Anna Mary Howitt's book on Munich, and Overbeck on Greek art, we turned out into the delicious sunshine to walk in the Theresien Wiese, and have our first look at the colossal Bavaria, the greatest work of Schwanthaler. Delightful it was to get away from the houses into this breezy meadow, where we heard the larks singing above us. The sun was still too high in the west for us to look with comfort at the statue except right in front of it, when it eclipsed the sun. And this front view is the only satisfactory one. The outline made by the head and arm on a side view is almost painfully ugly. But in front, looking up to the beautiful calm face, the impression it produces is sublime. I have never seen anything even in ancient sculpture of a more awful beauty than this dark colossal head looking out from a background of pure pale blue sky. We mounted the platform to have a view of her back, and then, walking forward, looked to our right hand and saw-the snow-covered Alps! Sight more to me than all the art in Munich, though I love the Art nevertheless. The great wide-stretching earth and the all-embracing sky-the birth-right of us all-are what I care most to look at, after all. And I feel intensely the new beauty of the sky here. The blue is so exquisitely clear, and the wide streets give one such a broad canopy of sky. I felt more inspirited by our walk to the Theresien-Platz than by any pleasure we have had in Munich. We came back quickly to set out again for the Residenz-Theater, where we were going to see Lady Tartfe in a German dress. A very pretty little theatre it is, ornamented with sculptured wood, all dead white and gold with crimson draperies. The play was very respectably performed, and there was a delicious bit of real comedy in the make up, physiognomy and by-play of the president of the Benevolent Society, by Herr Keller. The Germans are excellent in these quiet bits of humour.” Germany 1858 311

Howitt, Anna Mary, An Art Student in Munich, George Eliot's Reading, George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://www.georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/57800

https://georgeeliotarchive.org/files/original/fc6d4c83c0c37136e6b87690cb5854aa.pdf