“Feldeinsamkeit” (“Solitude in a Field”) from Brahms-Phantasie (Brahms Fantasy)

In his Brahms-Phantasie, the symbolist artist Max Klinger combines graphic images with musical scores inspired by the works of the German composer Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) to create a series of “fantasies.” Klinger presented his illustrations for Brahms’s music to the composer, his close friend, on January 1, 1894. This image accompanies the song titled “Solitude in a Field.” It portrays a poet lying on his back and watching the clouds drift by as he listens to crickets, feeling as if he were “long dead.” Klinger explained to Brahms that his illustrations were intended to capture how a “tender, too tender reflection on what is past and what is lost” can be overcome by a “powerful energetic pulling together of oneself.”