Hans Jurgis Preuss (1904–1984) graduated from the Koenigsberg Academy of Arts and was a pupil of Arthur Degner who was an expressionist artist. The artist was fluent in five languages and during his long life had time to travel all over Europe, having encountered the originals of Rembrandt, Rubens, Velasquez and many other masters. He was particularly influenced by the post-impressionists Paul Cézanne and Van Gogh.

Preuss’ life was so eventful and turbulent due to his first wife, Gertrude Genis, who was a convinced communist and an intelligence agent. Over time, the artist, who was initially needed as a cover, became fascinated by the idea of the world revolution and began to work for the USSR as a spy.

However, for the general public, Preuss has always been only an original painter who has been actively exhibited in European capitals. His solo exhibition in Paris in 1937 was particularly well-loved by critics. The French press was delighted and gave the artist the title of a master of intimate portraiture. Soon afterwards, Preuss took up Soviet citizenship and was going to settle in Moscow, but he and his wife, like all Germans in the Soviet Union, were deported to Siberia. Gertrude died there of tuberculosis. After her death Preuss lived first in Tomsk, then in Kemerovo.

Pines and Rocks landscape is painted in the vein of that intimate painting the French loved so much.

The painting is notable for its soft, smooth strokes that convey the atmosphere of a leisurely stroll in the evening or that of afternoon rest. Preuss arranged the space with gentle pastel tones - green, blue, purple, sandy yellow. The latter favourably accentuates the soft sunlight, which permeates the work. The artist painted the Baltic Sea coast, the pine trees and the rock silhouettes, leaving the contours of the objects slightly blurred on purpose. His subtle sense of colour and his ability to convey a lively and immediate nature was most fully demonstrated in this work.

Arthur Degner, Preuss’ professor at the Königsberg Academy of Fine Arts, often went out with his students to the open-airs and wrote sketches in Nida. The small village on the Curonian Spit has been popular with local artists since the 19th century. Probably it was from his teacher that Preuss inherited his passion for sketches of life.