Carl Fredrik Hill

In the present drawing where the flooded landscape seems to have drowned everything except the isolated trees, there are connections both to the "flood theme" as noted by Nils Lindhagen in general, as well as to individual similar examples such as "Trees entwining houses" (colour chalk, 18 x 22.5 cm, Malmö Art Museum).

Nils Lindhagen writes in one of his analyses of similar motifs: "It is often completely futile to try to trace the origin of Hill's countless remarkable tree formations, for the phases of transformation are simply too many. These trees, which seem filled with immense forces, become during certain periods the most important conduits for the draughtsman's intentions."

Lindhagen also makes connections to potential sources of inspiration regarding motifs like the one in question. Highly interesting in this context is, according to Lindhagen, the ancient tale of Philemon and Baucis: "which seems to have greatly occupied Hill's imagination. Hill's main source on the subject, Fr. Nösselt's handbook on the mythology of the Greeks and Romans, quotes at length Ovid's vivid depiction of how the two old people were saved by the gods during a devastating flood unleashed upon the earth; and upon their simultaneous death, they were transformed into trees. A whole series of drawings indicate that Hill carefully contemplated this tale with its close connection to his own flood fantasies."