Deconstructing the Grand Master, Part VIII - Benjamin Williams Leader

I had a further chat with Dr T today, which left me a little bit less clear as to where I was going with this project.  In reflection though, I think she has been absolutely right to challenge my thinking and to test my commitment.  Today I seem to have been rather fixated with the craftsmanship or practice of completing the painting into a perfect rendition.  I have made a few adjustments to it this morning but it is far from perfect in my view.  Maybe this is my trait of perfectionism again... Perfectionism is a curse!...

I have got a little obsessive with the painting, and therefore not generating many new ideas.  I have therefore come away to re-think my approach.

I am still keen to "cartoon-ify" some of the themes and ideas I have, but I want to leave a little bit of narrative to the viewer to make thir own decisions.   - I realise it's the "possible" links that people want to explore, (I recall Dr T mentioning that it's a little bit like a great novel, one that keeps you engaged, one that leads you into wanting more, - to explore deeper etc.

For example, one of my ideas was to allow the river to flood.  The melting of the glacier at the top left of the painting could be the cause of flooding in lower parts of Europe for instance.  I could put a "Closed for the Season" label in the Gesthof Nietzsche window, due to staff being unavailable, held up in the UK floods for example... :-)

However, I still wanted to look at the real world around where the painting was originally captured.  Further research and a bit of detective work found that the piece was done on  a "Road between Merringen and Rosen[baum/]"...  I checked the maps.

This is what I found !!!!!

Now, imagine if we were standing off to the left of the valley, near the river.....  The clue is in the topology of the middle distance hills, and the shapes to the right, and to the left.  Careful scrutiny show there is indeed a road (in fact, there are quite a few roads and tracks here), to the extreme left of the photo above.  You may also notice an absence of Norway Spruce trees too!... :-)