Sale: 538 / 19th Century Art, June 10. 2023 in Munich Lot 632

 

632
Oswald Achenbach
Golf von Neapel, 1876.
Oil on canvas
Estimate:
€ 20,000 / $ 21,600
Sold:
€ 22,860 / $ 24,688

(incl. surcharge)
Golf von Neapel. 1876.
Oil on canvas.
Lower left signed and dated. 100 x 151 cm (39.3 x 59.4 in).

• Along with his brother Andreas, Oswald Achenbach is one of the leading landscape painters in Europe, and he helped found the reputation of the Düsseldorf School.
• Extremely characteristic Achenbach composition of one of the most popular views of Naples.
• With his paintings, Achenbach significantly shaped the pictorial image of Italy in the post-Romantic era.
• Views of Naples from that time found their way into renowned collections while the artist was still alive. Variations of the motif are at the Bavarian State Painting Collections, the Kunsthalle Hamburg and the Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf
.

PROVENANCE: Galerie Paffrath, Düsseldorf.
Private collection Hesse (acquired from the above).

As the main representative of the Düsseldorf school of painting, whose development he significantly influenced as a professor of the landscape class, Oswald Achenbach devoted his artistic creativity primarily to the classical landscape of Italy. This natural setting, explored on numerous study trips, is a constant source of inspiration and prompts him to travel south again and again. He made his first extensive and artistically productive trip to Italy in 1850 with the fellow painter Albert Flamm. In Rome he met famous colleagues like Arnold Böcklin. He shaped the image of Italy and landscape painting in Germany, especially with the nuanced compositions and views of iconic places and scenic sights, guided by a romantic, longing gaze, and quickly achieved success and international fame over the course of the 1860s. He was appointed professor for landscape painting at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf, which was very important for the genre at the time, as early as in 1863. He exhibited his works at Galerie Eduard Schulte and also took part in the renowned Munich art exhibitions and the Paris Salon. In 1871 he stayed in Italy with his family for nine months. Views characterized by a "colorful dreaming, cheerful and mild idealism" (Wilhelm von Oettingen, in: Die Kunst für Alle, vol. 12, issue 10, 1897, p. 146) emerged there during this mature period, in which the view over the Gulf of Naples may well be considered one of the most accomplished ones. In the foreground, the figure staffage with arriving fishermen and bathing children, as well as women sitting around the fire, creates a casual atmosphere, on the left the view is directed towards the city with the Castell dell'Ovo in front of it. However, the main source of ambiance in Oswald Achenbach's paintings is always the special light. The morning sun paints the slightly cloudy, smoky-blue sky a delicate rose and is effectively reflected on the calm sea. The volcano in the background is indicated by the small red lava stream and poses no threat to the idyll. It is not for nothing that the Düsseldorfer Zeitung was full of praise on December 22, 1861: "Oswald Achenbach is the real painter of Italy". Views of Naples from the time also found their way into renowned collections like the Bavarian State Painting Collections, the Kunsthalle Hamburg and the Düsseldorfer Kunstmuseum. [KT]



632
Oswald Achenbach
Golf von Neapel, 1876.
Oil on canvas
Estimate:
€ 20,000 / $ 21,600
Sold:
€ 22,860 / $ 24,688

(incl. surcharge)