(Elberfeld 1904–1981 Rutarhof/Carinthia) ‘Der Rutarhof im Februar’, 1956, monogrammed W. B., oil on canvas, 40 x 120 cm, framed, (K)

Illustrated and listed in: Werner Berg /Gemälde, Verlag Johannes Heyn, Klagenfurt 1994, p. 277, catalogue raisonné no. 477 Provenance: private ownership, Germany - acquired direct from the artist Werner Berg/adoptive home, Lower Carinthia The Rutarhof, as our patch of land is called rather pompously, lies at the southwestern corner of the ridge of mountains in front of the Hochobir, below which the Vellach flows into the Drava. Anyone who has been there and has eyes, will have seen the uniqueness of the situation – on the other side of the Drava, which bends before the Anna bridge, above the pitching forest, stands the rocky outcrop of the Skarbin. It divides the western view into two halves; one could say, into two worlds. To the northwest the Jaunatal and the Klagenfurter Becken which lies spread out like a map, framed by the Nocken and the Tauern on clear days. To the southwest the view is towards the Rosental, which is less well known from here, but for all that more beautiful and occluded. Towards sunrise, one speaks audibly and differently in the wide forests of the Dobrova and the foothills of the Eastern mountains. To the south towering about everything else is the Obir, the silhouette of which sways with ancient nobility in the heavens, standing as a sign of, and witness to, everything that happens below. This farm and this patch of heaven, if this word is fitting here, has become my chosen home. I say chosen home and yet sense at the same time the hesitation in the word: who can really choose his home? .... From the above-mentioned catalogue raisonné