The Count’s leap | Oil painting on canvas

Description

Der Grafensprung (The Count’s Leap) | Oil on canvas, 150 × 100 cm

Arturo Laime revisits one of the Black Forest’s most enduring legends in this large-scale work, painted in the region where he lived and worked for several years before relocating to Berlin. The story of the “Grafensprung” — the Count’s Leap — tells of Count Wolf von Eberstein, who, cornered by his enemies near Gernsbach, spurred his horse off a high cliff and miraculously survived the fall into the Murg valley below. The legend has echoed for centuries across Germany and beyond, symbolizing courage, faith, and defiance in the face of destruction.

Laime’s Der Grafensprung stands as the first reinterpretation of this theme since Jakob Götzenberger’s 19th-century fresco in Baden-Baden’s Trinkhalle. While Götzenberger portrayed the Count in free fall, Laime captures the instant before the leap — the breath-suspended moment of decision between life and death. This shift of focus transforms the legend from a historical anecdote into a psychological drama about risk, will, and transcendence.

The dramatic composition, dominated by diagonals and saturated color, heightens the tension of that choice. The Count, clad in historically accurate armor designed in consultation with a local historian, leans forward in unity with his horse — a creature rendered in glowing oranges and reds, vibrating with the energy of instinct and faith. The dense pine forest below, painted in a rhythm of cold blues and violets, contrasts with the fiery sky that seems to consume the horizon. The Count’s figure, sharply illuminated and almost sculptural against the air, stands as the visual and psychological axis of the painting. The light, breaking through the clouds, becomes an active element—both a source of revelation and of uncertainty.

Psychologically, the work invites the viewer into the charged stillness before an irreversible act. The Count’s leap can be read as a metaphor for the human threshold between fear and courage, between captivity and transcendence. For the artist, the legend also carries a personal echo: the experience of leaving behind stability, of confronting risk as an integral part of transformation and artistic faith.

This painting is part of Arturo Laime’s Tales of the Black Forest series, which reflects on the interconnection between nature, myth, and the artist’s own years in Germany’s Schwarzwald region. Through its blend of landscape, allegory, and psychological depth, the series explores what it means to find meaning—and freedom—within the wilderness of both place and self.

This painting was featured on  the artist’s Solo Show “The persistence of hope” in Rathaus in Gernsbach, Germany, in 2022.

About this painting:

Materials: Oil pigments, acrylic and charcoal on canvas.

Frame made from European reforested woods.

The artwork is hand-stretched and stapled on the reverse on a 0,7″ deep frame with the sides left white.

This artwork comes with D-ring hangers and is ready to hang.

This oil painting is hand signed by the artist on the front, and signed & titled on the back.

It Includes a Certificate of Authenticity signed and sealed by the artist himself.

Delivered in a secure, protective cardboard packaging.

Created in Germany. Delivered from the Black Forest.

Worldwide Delivery.

Delivery

We aim to deliver our original artwork within:

Germany – 5-10 working days.

Europe – 7-12 working days.

Rest of world – 10-30 working days.

NOTE:

• The size of the artwork on pictures is just referential
• Artwork colours may slightly vary due to photographic lighting sources or monitor settings
• No watermark appears on the artwork