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| Pieter Brueghel the Elder Beekeepers before 1569 drawing Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin |
"In the dialect I was familiar with from childhood, croakily articulated at the back of the throat like some bird language, they talked mainly or indeed exclusively about the never-ending rain, which in many places had already caused whole mountainsides to slide into the valleys. They spoke of the hay rotting in the fields and the potatoes rotting in the ground; of the redcurrants which had come to nothing for a third year in a row; of the elder, which this year had not flowered until the beginning of August and had then been completely ruined by the rain; and of the fact that not a single eatable apple had been picked far and wide. As they went on discussing the effects of the ever-worsening weather, complaining that there was neither sunlight nor warmth, the scene outside brightened up, a little at first and then more and more."
– from Vertigo by W.G. Sebald, published in German in 1990, translated by Michael Hulse and published in English by New Directions in 2000
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| Andrea del Sarto Enthroned Madonna and Child with eight saints 1528 drawing for altarpiece Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin |
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| Albrecht Dürer Portrait of architect Hieronymus von Augsburg 1506 drawing on blue paper Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin |
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| Charles Alphonse Dufresnoy Adoration of the Magi 1628 drawing Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf |
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| Lorrain Claude Landscape with round tower and bay 1635-40 drawing Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt |
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| Gaspard Dughet Landscape with Elijah and Angel on Mount Horeb 1660 drawing Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf |
"The start of Cosmo's second serious nervous breakdown appears to have been connected with a German film about a gambler that was screened in New York at that time, which Cosmo described as a labyrinth devised to imprison him and drive him mad, with all its mirror reversals. He was particularly disturbed by an episode towards the end of the film in which a one-armed showman and hypnotist by the name of Sandor Weltmann induced a sort of collective hallucination in his audience. From the depth of the stage (as Cosmo repeatedly described it to Ambros) the mirage image of an oasis appeared. A caravan emerged onto the stage from a grove of palms, crossed the stage, went down into the auditorium, passed amongst the spectators, who were craning round in amazement, and vanished as mysteriously as it had appeared. The terrible thing was (Cosmo insisted) that he himself had somehow gone from the hall together with the caravan, and now could no longer tell where he was."
– from The Emigrants by W.G. Sebald, published in German in 1993, translated by Michael Hulse and published in English by New Directions in 1996
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| Gaspard Dughet Landscape with mountain town and waterfall ca. 1660 drawing on blue paper Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf |
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| Adriaen van de Velde Seated female nude ca. 1660-70 drawing Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin |
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| Stefano Pozzi Two men carrying a body ca. 1740-50 drawing Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf |
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| Franz Kobell Mountainous landscape 1761 drawing Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf |
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| Eugène Delacroix Aeneas and Anchises 1815 drawing Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf |
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| Caspar Scheuren Study of a tree 1830s drawing, watercolor Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf |
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| Johann Wilhelm Schirmer Cypresses in the Park at Villa d’Este in Tivoli 1839-40 wash drawing Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf |
"Since the mid-Seventies there has been an ever more rapid decline in the numbers of trees, with heavy losses, above all amongst the species most common in England. Indeed, one tree has become well nigh extinct: Dutch elm disease spread from the south coast into Norfolk around 1975, and within the space of just two or three summers there were no elms left alive in the vicinity. The six elm trees which had shaded the pond in our garden withered away in June 1978, just a few weeks after they unfolded their marvellous light green foliage for the last time. The virus spread through the root systems of entire avenues with unbelievable speed, causing capillaries to tighten and leading to the trees' dying of thirst. Even solitary trees were located with infallible accuracy by the airborne beetles which spread the disease. One of the most perfect trees I have ever seen was an almost two-hundred-year-old elm that stood on its own in a field not far from our house. About one hundred feet tall, it filled an immense space. I recall that, after most of the elms in the area had succumbed, its countless, somewhat asymmetrical, finely serrated leaves would sway in the breeze as if the scourge which had obliterated its entire kind would pass it by without a trace; and I also recall that a bare fortnight later all these apparently invincible leaves were brown and curled up, and dust before the autumn came."
– from The Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald, published in German in 1995, translated by Michael Hulse and published in English by New Directions in 1998
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| Theodor Mintrop St Michael battling the Devil 1858 drawing Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf |