Ο Ρολογάς στο Εργαστήρι

000074 Alois Heinrich Priechenfried, The Clockmaker in his Workshop, n.d., oil on cardboard, 79 × 68.5 cm

Inside a typical, poor interior, two figures are depicted. On the right, a young woman seated on a stool and holding a cloth in her hands, watches intently the elder man. The latter, standing by the window and in front of a table with tools, is pensively examining a clock. Inside the small room with its sparse furniture and the wooden, worn floor, other clocks can be seen, revealing that the man is a clockmaker. The realistic drawing, the soft colours predominantly in warm brown tones, the depiction of the volumes as the soft light enters through the window, all these elements place the work in the genre realism inspired by the life of rural people. Indeed, although Priechenfried worked primarily in the 20th century (he died in 1953), his style originates from the past, in particular from the Biedermeier movement, which dominated German art in the period 1815-1848 and marked the rising of the middle class. The paintings of that style were dominated by the cheerful, idealised, genre scenes with peasants as protagonists. The Clockmaker follows this spirit and retains intact the charm of the Biedermeier Art.