Siegen: Backyard

The watercolour in vertical format shows the view from a concreted and somewhat dilapidated backyard onto a collection of half-timbered houses and a pigsty. There are no people to be seen, but two pigs and a cockerel are being kept in the yard. The tower of St. Mary’s Church in Siegen flashes out above the roof of a house, shrouded in a thick cloud. The sky above it is blue. Leaves have collected in the courtyard; the concrete is broken in many places and stones lie around. A wall that separates the courtyard from the stables has been repaired with concrete over a wide area. The watercolours, drawings and photographs by Jakob Scheiner and his son Wilhelm have formed the image of the city in the period from around 1850 to 1920. Born in Cologne in 1852, Wilhelm initially became a metallurgical engineer. However, he was unable to carry out this profession due to a nervous condition and so switched to fine art. Some of his father Jakob’s large-format works were executed in watercolour over pencil drawings. They were so successful that they were shown at the world exhibitions in Paris (1868) and Vienna (1873).