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Three Women in Church
Wilhelm Leibl · Realism & Academic
- Artist
- Wilhelm Leibl (1844–1900)
- Date
- 1878–1882
- Dimensions
- 113 x 77 cm
- Medium
- Oil on mahogany panel
- Location
- Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
Three Women in Church shows three Bavarian peasant women of different ages sitting side by side in a wooden church pew: a young girl in a bright, patterned costume, a middle-aged woman and an old woman, all absorbed in their prayer books.
A closer look
Leibl worked on this small painting for almost four years in the village church of Berbling in Upper Bavaria, painting directly in the cold church, often in poor light. Every detail is rendered with extraordinary precision, like an Old Master: the embroidered scarves, the wrinkled hands, the grain of the wooden pews and the pages of the books. The three women represent youth, maturity and old age, united in quiet devotion. The painting reflects Leibl's belief that simple rural people should be painted honestly and seriously, without sentimentality.