 |
| Augustin Hirschvogel Five Bare Spruce Trees against a River Landscape 1549 etching Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio |
 |
| Hendrik Hondius Plate 41 from Thorough Instruction in Optics and Perspective 1622 engraving British Museum |
 |
| Paul Bril Landscape with Trees before 1626 drawing, with watercolor Yale University Art Gallery |
 |
| Remigio Cantagallina Tree Study with Distant View of a Mill ca. 1633 drawing Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |
 |
| Franciscus de Neve the Younger Landscape with Tree in Water ca. 1660-70 etching Philadelphia Museum of Art |
 |
| Anonymous Flemish Artist Trees on a Bank 17th century drawing, with watercolor Yale University Art Gallery |
 |
| Franz Gawet Large Tree in Landscape 1792 etching Philadelphia Museum of Art |
 |
| Johann Erdmann Hummel Blasted Tree ca. 1795 oil on paper Morgan Library, New York |
 |
| Adrian Zingg Tree Study before 1816 drawing Morgan Library, New York |
 |
| Carl Friedrich Lessing Tree Study 1852 drawing Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio |
 |
| Carl Maria Nicolaus Hummel Trees near Diessen ca. 1860 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
 |
| Carlos de Haes Group of Oaks ca. 1874 oil on canvas Museo del Prado, Madrid |
 |
| Freimund Edlich Pines in Saxon Switzerland ca. 1880 albumen print Gemäldegalerie, Dresden |
 |
| Friedrich Preller the Younger Beech Tree against a Landscape ca. 1890 oil on canvas Gemäldegalerie, Dresden |
 |
| Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Landscape with Chestnut Tree 1913 oil on canvas Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
 |
| Martel Schwichtenberg Flowering Tree II 1922 oil on canvas Yale University Art Gallery |
from The Song of the Happy Shepherd
The woods of Arcady are dead
And over is their antique joy;
Of old the world on dreaming fed,
Grey Truth is now her painted toy,
Yet still she turns her restless head.
But O, sick children of the world,
Of all the many changing things
In dreary dancing past us whirled
To the cracked tune that Chronos sings,
Words alone are certain good.
Where are now the warring kings,
Word be-mockers? – By the Rood
Where are now the warring kings?
And idle word is now their glory
By the stammering schoolboy said,
Reading some entangled story:
The kings of the old time are dead.
The wandering earth herself may be
Only a sudden flaming word
In clanging space a moment heard,
Troubling the endless reverie.
– William Butler Yeats (1885)