Forum: Visual Studies—The Art Historians’ View Edited by Maria Makela; with contributions by Marsha Morton, Erin Maynes, Barbara McCloskey, Freyja Hartzell, Camilla Smith, Nina Lübbren, Andrés Mario Zervigón, Daniel H. Magilow, Christian Weikop, and Deborah Ascher Barnstone Nature, Science, and Self in Nineteenth-Century German Visual Culture Throughout the nineteenth century, German society was increasingly preoccupied with developments in the life sciences, which frequently dominated the illustrated pages of popular journals and newspapers. More than a clinical discipline for spe- cialists, German scientific attention to nature impacted cultural and social issues of the day and inspired artists, often through its broader associations with phi- losophy, the spiritual, and belief in an interrelated sentient universe (“Natur- philosophie” and Monism). Art historical interest in this subject, however, has emerged comparatively recently amidst the turn to interdisciplinary studies of the past two decades. The current stage of research is still focused primarily on individual artists or movements, while a more comprehensive thematic study has yet to be published. Overall, three chronological periods of influence can be loosely discerned: Romantic landscape painting, the initial impact of Darwin dur- ing the 1870s and 1880s, and Jugendstil design. Investigations have been stimu- lated by major new biographies in the history of science (Alexander von Humboldt, Ernst Haeckel) and publications occasioned by the two-hundredth anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth in 2009. The pioneering book on Romantic constructions of nature remains Timothy J. Mitchell’s Art and Science in German Landscape Painting 1770-1840 (1993), which was followed by the exhibition Expedition Kunst (2003), extending the scope to portrayals of foreign vistas. The focus of Mitchell’s research was on new concepts of historical and cultural change that emerged with studies of geography, geology, geognosy, and environmental determinism. According to Mitchell, these interests produced shared goals uniting stylistically diverse painters for whom elements of nature (mountains, trees, sky and clouds) instantiated the passage of time and “were believed to have exerted a direct influence on cultural history” (2). Two of the leading figures within Romantic art—Caspar David Friedrich and Carl Gustav Carus—have recently been the subjects of major publications and re- interpretations. Information about Carus, which serves to underscore his influence, has expanded considerably through a two-volume exhibition catalogue (2009), au- thored by scientists and art historians addressing thematic topics, evaluations of his writings and natural history collection, and relationships with leading figures such as Goethe, Alexander von Humboldt, Lorenz Oken, and Friedrich. The 246 Te German Quarterly 92.2 (Spring 2019) ©2019, American Association of Teachers of German