Robert Zünd: Oak Forest, 1881 – Porcelain Art Mug

The interior of an oak forest at midday, the sun cutting through the canopy in shafts that light the undergrowth without dissolving the shadow around it. Each oak is rendered individually — bark texture, the exact distribution of leaves, the way each tree occupies its particular space — and the whole conveys that stillness which settles over dense forest in summer heat.

Robert Zünd (1827–1909) is the central figure in nineteenth-century Swiss landscape painting, and Eichenwald is among his most celebrated works. He studied in Geneva and Paris before returning to his native Lucerne, where he spent the greater part of a long career painting the forests, meadows and lakeshores of central Switzerland with a precision rooted in the Barbizon tradition. He made dozens of preparatory studies for his major forest paintings, working directly from the motif before composing in the studio; the result is a combination of documentary accuracy and formal organisation that places him in a distinct position within the European landscape tradition, related to but not identical with either the German Romantic school or the French Naturalists.

Fine porcelain, 10 oz — 104 mm high, 75 mm across the base. The image runs around the body; handle and rim stay white. Dishwasher and microwave safe.

Robert Zünd, Eichenwald (Oak Forest), 1881–82, oil on canvas, 119 × 159 cm. Kunsthaus Zürich, inv. 437. Public domain.

Selected by Dr. Walther Fuchs for the Tazzarte collection.