In the ruined castle Bösig
  • Richard Müller
  • Tschirnitz / Bohemia 1874 -1954 Dresden
  • In the ruined castle Bösig, 1939
  • Pencil and charcoal, partly smeared, on paper
  • entitled, dated and signed:
    Ruine Bösig 1939 - Rich. Müller
  • cat. rais. Z 1939.14
  • 415 × 304 mm
Provenance:
estate of the artist

Our second drawing from the Bösig ruins also accentuates the contrasts between light and shadows that the vistas on the castle‘s ground floor provided for the artist. At the same time, the building‘s open wounds, with its torn stone walls and missing plaster, gave Richard Müller the ideal opportunity to prove his masterly drawing skills. Not even the smallest surface remains unstructured in this drawing, and even the relatively monochromatic nature of the materials available, like lead pencil and black chalk, is offset by Müller‘s use of an incredible variety of shades. The viewer‘s gaze is shifted slightly from the middle of the staggered doorways, creating a theatrical tension that Müller was able to heighten through a constant interplay among the different materials on the walls.

The Bohemian King Ottokar II commissioned the construction of the Castle Bösig in 1264. Until 1420 this gothic complex belonged to the crown estate. Albrecht von Wallenstein took over this hard-to-reach hill castle in the early 17th century, following the Battle of the White Mountain, and enlarged it considerably. Nevertheless, the Swedes later managed to capture and partially destroy Bösig. Following Wallenstein´s idea, Emperor Ferdinand III thereafter ceded the buildings to Benedictine monks from Prague, who founded a monstery of supraregional importance in Bösig, that continued operating until 1785. Later, the complex fell into disrepair and was first rediscovered as a ruin only during the Romantic period. Substantial security and renovation measures taken in the years following World War II have meanwhile preserved the extant structures.