From near and far : aesthetic distance in the representation of Heimat by Lena Christ and Clara Viebig

Lena Christ (1881–1920) and Clara Viebig (1860–1952) depicted the German Catholic peasantry in border regions remote from Berlin: Upper Bavaria in Christ's Mathias Bichler (1914) and Die Rumplhanni (1917) and the Eifel in Viebig's Heimat (1914). Both authors made much of their authentic presentation of peasant life and it is still this aspect which is emphasised in the reception of their work. The irresistible force of modernity in the growing cities, coupled with the upheaval of the Great War, appeared to have provoked fresh longing for rural traditions and simplicity. By linking the writing of Viebig and Christ to the contemporaneous interest of visual artists in the landscape, peasantry, and tradition, this article will demonstrate how authenticity and the rural Heimat became a focus of aesthetic enquiry at this time.