About the work

Today such paintings are regarded as idyllic and evocative of the "good old days". This work depicts a rolling sun-drenched meadow in early autumn, with a chicken picking at the corn, and the outbuildings of the Schnaar farmstead in Worpswede. The farming life in the 1940s in Worpswede was very arduous and rudimentary. Adjoining the farmstead was an old semi-timbered cottage, which no longer stands, and which Lisel Oppel had dubbed the "evening sun house". Here the painter rented the old cottage for herself and son Claudio. She painted the farmer woman Schnaar at the draw well in the meadow on a sunny day. Further paintings (featuring children playing) were also produced in the immediate proximity of the farm. Mother and son spent the Christmas of 1943 at the farmstead.
(Quoted from: Die Malerin Lisel Oppel, Christiane Krause, 166)
(Christa Neher)