Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781-1841) was primarily a successful Prussian architect working in the style of Neoclassicism and Gothic Revival, but he was also a talented artist, and the painting above is one of his dreamy, fantastical works where Schinkel’s eye for astonishing architectural design meets mystical, symbolic ideas about the man and nature. Castle by the River was allegedly first a mere draft conceived on a bet between Schinkel and his friend Romantic poet Clemens Brentano. The two argued over whether or not art can possibly match the swiftness with which a poet or writer can come up with narrative ideas, and whether art or poetry can better articulate complex narratives. Brentano came up with one story of an elaborate, castle-like hunting lodge near a river, which was left abandoned and overgrown, with its owner being long dead and buried across the river because the castle grounds were too rocky. Schinkel drafted these ideas on the spot and with ease, proving his point that the artist can match any poet’s imagination. His sketch was later seen and commissioned as a painting.

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