Artwork Description

Title:Isola Felice

Artist Matthias Brandes

Date 2011

Medium: Oil and tempera on canvas

Dimensions 47.2 x 39.4 in (120 x 100 cm)

1. Artwork Identification
In Isola Felice (2011), Matthias Brandes presents a gravity-defying vision of architecture adrift in a twilight sky. Executed in oil and egg tempera on canvas, the composition features two angular, chapel-like buildings floating above a darkened island, their pale stone facades rendered in meticulous texture against a saturated crimson backdrop. This surreal staging, simultaneously monumental and weightless, is emblematic of Brandes’ deeply imaginative and symbolic visual language.

2. Artistic Style and Influences
Brandes’ painting bridges metaphysical surrealism and architectural abstraction, recalling the spatial enigmas of de Chirico and the tonal solemnity of Morandi. His fusion of egg tempera and oil yields a matte yet luminous surface, enhancing the sense of quiet isolation that permeates the scene. The suspended structures evoke both medieval sanctity and modern estrangement, offering a poetic meditation on permanence and transience. His style is uniquely his own, marrying German precision with Italian mysticism.

3. Historical Context
Painted in 2011, Isola Felice emerges from Brandes’ mature period of exploration into architectural symbolism and metaphysical environments. Created in Meolo, near Venice, the work reflects the artist’s lifelong negotiation between Northern and Southern European aesthetics. The Title:—Happy Island—invokes both utopian longing and ironic detachment, aligning the piece with postmodern themes of displacement, solitude, and imagined refuge.

4. Provenance
Provenance documentation can be provided upon contact.

5. Condition and Conservation
The artwork is in very good condition. The paint surface is stable and well-preserved, with no visible abrasions, losses, or restoration. The colors remain rich and luminous, benefiting from the inherent durability of the artist’s tempera-oil technique.

6. Artistic Significance
Isola Felice is a quintessential example of Matthias Brandes’ singular vision, wherein architectural forms become vessels for memory, contemplation, and psychological resonance. With an international career spanning exhibitions in Europe, Asia, and the United States, Brandes has developed a unique artistic voice rooted in formal balance and metaphysical inquiry. This work offers collectors a profound and poetic artifact of 21st-century European surrealism.