Karl Hagemeister's large-format, painterly pastels convey his characteristic lyrical view of nature. The fragility and fleeting nature of the powdery material also symbolically reflects the fleeting nature of the impression of the depicted light and atmosphere. The eye scans the surface again and again, lingering on object-like concretizations and structures or gliding into the depths of the velvety color space. This all the more encourages a contemplative way of looking, which corresponds to Hagemeister's natural-mystical concept of immersion. Suffused by air and light, the viewer also becomes part of a sensation "of the moving breath of nature, of the moving atmosphere above and between things, of the spiritual element of nature", which man is not confronted with, but in its living organism he himself is enclosed (Hagemeister, Tagebuchaufzeichnungen, quoted from: Hendrikje Warmt, Karl Hagemeister. Reflexion der Stille, Berlin 2016, p. 142). Especially at the end of the 19th century, the colors, like mineral dust as the purest pigment in conception and handling, were highly valued for their luminosity and their matt, velvety surface effect and were often used in landscape painting. In the present pastel, color and technique gain ever greater autonomy over their representational function. Gently moving waves, damp sand and branches and foliage swaying in the wind are placed on the canvas with a delicate touch, transforming the landscape from a concrete motif into the almost physical sensation of a cool sea breeze. The dissolving forms suggest a feeling of boundlessness and vastness, in whose metaphysically perceived immateriality the souls of the artist, the viewer and nature are connected. [KT]