Two women in the lake part 3

Mia puts the brush aside, retreats into the small chamber, lurks to the moment when her fellow students leave the room. She clears the light, closes from the inside and sits down on the floor. She closes her eyes, forcing herself to sit for a long time to be sure she is alone in the house. The moonlight is enough to get along. She scans the place where Professor Caspar had hid the sketches quickly, and in fact they are still there. Her heart seems to make a leap, it hurries. A mixture of wild joy and concern captures them.

There are six or seven cabbages, more or less finished. The small oil painting captures Mia’s attention. She holds it in the moonlight. It is a thick cardboard box, about the size of half an envelope on which the painting was applied. The picture is painted in fast coarse strokes, the colors indicate a warm summer day. Two women with sun hats, in bright long dresses, lingering on a green meadow. Mountains can be seen in the background. The woman is slightly fuller, and lies on the side of the meadow, her dress is high, her head resting on her hand. She is turned to the other woman who has grown up in the grass. The dress of the seated is deeply cut and narrow in the waist. Her hair is stuck under the hat, giving her a clear look at her slender neck. The women are engrossed in conversation. Their facial features are not recognizable because of the wide brushwork, but the attitude of the women is visible, that they are friendly. Mia finds herself trying to guess the contours of the female body. The reclining figure reveals a roundish hip, a luscious breasts would fit, thought Mia, but that leaves Reichinger open. Just as he leaves the age of the two undefined. The summer lightness, the warmth, the familiarity and the interest in each other are all the more effective.
Some strokes still seem a little disjointed, as if he had set them and wanted to integrate them later. “Almost as if he had been interrupted during the painting,” thinks Mia. On the other hand, this does not detract from the whole. Perhaps only a sketch, which he later wanted to elaborate in greater detail?

She forgets the time, the excitement, the problem of her situation. She is fascinated by the few strokes, which give no importance to the detail, but give the atmosphere of the scene all the more space. The moment of an entire story is so expressive in this cardboard box. How these two women stand together? Are they girlfriends, sisters, maybe even female partners? Mia holds her breath, something in the picture is special and touches her. Is it because these two women could be a couple, just as they longed for themselves? She must grin at the thought. “Just because you have a longing that you have not yet been able to breastfeed, you do not have to see exactly that in all the pictures, ‘she interrupts her spoiled dreams.
This thought brings them back to the bottom of the facts. She stands in the academy with a picture in her hand, which would probably have migrated into one of the crates during her discovery. So what about this picture and the sketches? Here, in the academy’s rooms, she can not hide her. Who knows whether this bestelmeyer will take a closer look at the building in the coming days. In any case, the works have to get out of the academy, which then happens, she can think later.

Shortly, Mia takes her unfortunate work from the easel. The Reichinger works can be placed from behind into the frame and the whole wrapped in a large paper sheet. In the normal case, she would have had to wait for the color of her painting to be transported in this way. But what is normal in these days. It does not matter if the paper sticks to the oil paint or not, the main thing it can bring the sketches safely out of the academy.

With a wild beating of heart she leaves the building, swinging on her bike and stepping hard on the pedals. In her room she overcomes a mixture of loosened tension and excited joy. Here they and the pictures are safe. She sits down on her bed and looks at the sketches in peace. With a sense of reverence she holds the papers that one of the men has made, which is why she had moved to Munich.

Mia is fascinated by the elegance and concentration on the essentials, which does not limit the expression, but rather reinforces it. So, as in the picture with the two women on the meadow. She places it on her pillow so she can look at it from a greater distance. Leaning against the foot of the bed, she lets the colors and forms of the two women work on her. Her fingers play self-forgetting with the brush that protrudes from the pocket of the bag. , Who has painted Wen Reichinger? Where could that be? ‘Darkly, she can remember that Reichinger was often at Elbenbergsee, lived there for a time. Whether the green is in the background of the Elbenbergsee? ‘What a pity that I did not live’, she goes through her head. To be in a painting group, to discuss, to exchange – she imagines the great. Quite different from now, when it is rather quiet and muted, no one speaks openly, an opinion or attitude is dangerous. At that time, they wanted to free themselves from old ideas and to look for new expressive possibilities. She would have liked to be there!
Mia feels the longing for something new and the possibility to overcome boundaries. She realizes that today the freedom of all artists, and thus their hope for a free life in the city, was destroyed. Looking closely at the two women at the other end of the bed, she finds the realization of a stroke that not only her artistic life, but also her longing for a freer sexual life will probably find no fulfillment.

The brush pushes into her consciousness. That she has not come up with the idea! What prevents her from entering the picture to find out where she is and what the two women have to face? She does not hesitate for long. The events of the day were so overwhelming, what more thoughts are there about new difficulties? The overnight stay will add a courageous decision to yours, so that she can drop the brush without further doubt into the picture and follow it.

On a hill she finds herself again, recognizes the lake far down, the mountains on the other bank. It is a warm summer’s day, the meadow is dry and soft, the two women in the white clothes are frightened up. “Uh, sorry I’m here so pure. I did not want to frighten you. “The two of them obviously spoke the language. No wonder: suddenly, as if out of nowhere, a young girl emerges with them and offers a strange sight. The hair is short, the coarse shirt and the trousers are strewn with paint stains, she has a brush in her hand and looks out over night. The contrast to their own clothes and the clothing habits of their time could not be greater. Kari tries again: “My name is Mia Talant and I come from Munich. I am studying at the academy and am … “She stops, she can not fall right now with the door into the house and tell her that she has just sunk into a picture that … moment, Johann Reichinger painted a lot in nature, she Turns around, yes, actually there he sits and probably has the picture, in which she has just disappeared, on his easel. “This is now finished, without knowing it, ‘Mia shoots through her head. But even that can not explain it now, at least not on the fast. The break had been long enough. Something has to be done to get the situation under control. She got up, went to Johann Reichinger and stretched out her hand. “It is an honor for me to get to know you. Her works fascinate me very much. “Johann Reichinger reacts reserved, still puts the brush away and gives her the hand. “They were so suddenly there, right in the middle of my motive …”, he is looking for words for his surprise. “Yes, I can only apologize for that. I did not want to scare you, but it was not any different. “

The dark-haired slender is the first to resume her composure, gets up and stands next to Reichinger. “You are at the Academy? Johann has not been there for three years. How can you admire his work. Where did you see something of him? “” Ouch, now it’s complicated, “thinks Mia. I know a lot of his works, but most of them have probably come after the present day, So be careful! “” I have found a few sketches and pictures that he left at the academy, “explains Mia truthfully. In her mind, she is annoyed by the fact that she has sunk into the picture so unprepared, but can see in the dark-haired face that her explanation alleviates suspicion.
The more sophisticated, younger-looking, has now joined them and stretches out Mia’s hand. “I am Martha, Martha left. This is Margarethe, Margarethe Schüller, “and points to the leanness. “What do you think of Johann, is not it a funny coincidence that Mia and Martha and Margaret, Mia?” He obviously did not notice this. He laughs: “Is that a coincidence? No idea! “He looks into the round:” Ladies, the motive is ruined and the picture finished with it. I’m packing. It’s time for us to eat something anyway. “Mia is uncomfortable to have blown up the situation:” I’m sorry, …