Is a painting "made by" a painter or just "by" a painter?

Unbelievably and infuriatingly, as a result of proofreading my paper, I managed to create and insert a typo while correcting other mistakes. It was actually correct before.

The first line is now:

Der Traum des Hirten is an oil painting by the Swiss Realist and Symbolist artist Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918) in 1896."

Instead of writing:

Der Traum des Hirten is an oil painting made by the Swiss Realist and Symbolist artist Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918) in 1896."

We have a example just like the above sentence in a writing guide for the class and I somehow managed to do it, as a result of editing while proofreading.

So, according to this writing guide by Marjorie Munsterbeg, I should have written "..a painting made by....in 1896" because to leave out the "made" makes the "in 1896" at the end of the sentence ambiguous as it's unclear to what the "in 1896" is in reference to.

But is the first line grammatically incorrect or just bad writing?

I feel like I should email my professor and just preemptively apologize and acknowledge the mistake.

UPDATE 7/1/24: got an A+ on the paper and this professor didn't even notice the poorly worded first line.....

“… is a painting in 1896” ?

The sentence does need correction. As it is now, your sentence breaks down to:

• [Subject] is [Subject Complement]

• [Der Traum des Hirten] is [an oil painting by the Swiss Realist and Symbolist artist Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918) in 1896.]

Looking at the subject complement noun-phrase in your sentence, the use of “in” might be grammatically correct, but “an oil painting in 1986” makes little sense: the painting does not exist only in 1896 - it still exists now.

Your original sentence, “made by... in 1896” resolved this oddness by attaching that date to the act of creating the painting, rather than to the painting itself. (As already pointed out, writers of English don’t consider paintings to be “made”; we prefer “produced” or “created”.)

Rewording: “…from 1826”

If you’re looking for a minimal correction that makes your sentence make sense again, I’d suggest forgetting the word “made”, and saying this instead:

• Der Traum des Hirten is an oil painting by the Swiss Realist and Symbolist artist Ferdinand Hodler (1853–1918) from 1896.

“from 1896” refers to origin of the painting in time. (I just checked the Wikipedia page for this work, and that’s how the author has described the picture in the first sentence…)

If you were writing the sentence again, though, I would say this (with thanks to @TimR for the comment):

• Der Traum des Hirten is an 1896 oil painting by the Swiss realist and symbolist artist Ferdinand Hodler (1853–1918).

(Note “an” because “eighteen ninety-six” begins with the vowel /eɪ/; contrast with “he won with a 1896 majority”, because “one thousand eight hundred and ninety-six” begins with the non-vowel /w/)

Art movements are not capitalised

As an aside, in normal English writing, we do not capitalise the names of movements when using them as adjectives. For example:

• “Leon Trotsky was a communist theorist…” (source)
• “…Salvador Dalí was Spanish surrealist painter”(source)
• “Unlike his previous, more realist works, Dream shows Hodler's interest in symbolism.” (source)

Note the last example does not capitalise “symbolism” even when it’s the name of the movement, and thus could be considered a proper noun. However, it could also be considered not as the name of a movement, but rather as a concept or an approach to painting; as such it wouldn’t get a capital letter.

However, if your organisation has a style-guide that says to capitalise the names of movements, then you should follow that guide, but be aware that it’s not normal in academic writing.