Here's a bit of biography that may help us to appreciate this painting. Fritz von Uhde was born in 1848. In 1866 (age 18) he was admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden. Considering the time spent there as useless, he left for the army a year later where he became a horsemanship instructor of the guard. At age 20 he was promoted to lieutenant. While traveling in Vienna in 1876 (age 28) he met the Viennese painter Hans Makart (age 36) called Painter of the Senses and The Magician of Color. Fritz von Uhde left the army two years later intent on becoming an artist.
With army life long behind him in 1890 and now at age 42 he painted this picture, Playing Boy. Fritz von Uhde painted children many times, but never depicting them as romanticized, precious or doll-like. Here we see a little boy in his playroom. He is wearing a smock and sitting on the floor intent upon cutting up a magazine with a pair of scissors.
It's a sunny morning. The sun is streaming in, creating colored patterns on the carpet and lighting up the boy's forehead and blond hair. But look, under the boy's right leg there is a piece of paper with what appears to be a watercolor painting. Off a little bit from his left foot there is a soldier's helmet, a toy horse and box that might hold metal toy soldiers. Young boys are often fed ideas about weapons and soldiering. But this boy isn't paying these things any mind. Is the artist simply acknowledging this piece of his life? Is he thinking that the boy will grow up and either be conscripted or have to decide for himself about the military? Is he thinking of himself as a boy and his own childhood in which his artistic talent was encouraged. This little boy seems to have created his own first "masterpiece."
But it was that chance meeting with the artist Hans Makart that appears to have so influenced Fritz that he left the army and went off in a new and creative direction. I might ask, are there people I've met along my own life-way who have influenced me for the better, who have helped me to find my way, informed me so that I was able to choose freely the path that I would follow?
Conversely, is there someone who led me wrongly? Someone whose influence I escaped? Even that influence can be woven into a life for the better, teaching me for example, that I am stronger, more capable, more enduring or smarter than I would have otherwise imagined. For me, in all of this I see God's hand and a window into God's purposes for me.
