6.6 Landscape in the 19th Century
We discussed the landscape painting of the animal painters up to the point where they had abandoned the Nicolaes Berchem idyll to turn towards a more naturalistic depiction in the taste of Paulus Potter; some progressive artists even had rejected all old fashioned practices. Painters of ‘the soldier´s life’ from Munich and Berlin, like Albrecht Adam, Peter Hess and Carl Schulz, who in the beginning still copied Philips Wouwerman, now painted realistic war pictures. Rudolf Kuntz (1797-1848), the horse painter from Karlsruhe, copied Potter’s bull from the Czernin Collection [1],1 but had shed all old master-like influence [2].
1
Paulus Potter
Cows leave a stable at a farm in the morning, dated 1647
Salzburg, Residenzgalerie Salzburg, inv./cat.nr. 548
2
Rudolf Kuntz
Portrait of a bay thoroughbred in a landscape with castle, dated 1832
3
Heinrich Bürkel
Great hay wagon in a Bavarian village, dated 1839
The same goes for the slightly younger Heinrich Bürkel and Friedrich Gauermann. Like the Kobells, Heinrich Bürkel (1802-1869) came from the Palatine and he also had a natural talent for painting, which led him to the Dutch landscapists, as soon as he settled in Munich in 1822 [3-6].2 From Wouwerman he didn’t only take over the composition, but also the warm colors and the artistic merging in the painting [7]. In this way he arranged the Upper Bavarian landscape and folk life in his works [8].
4
Heinrich Bürkel
The smithy of a blacksmith in the mountains, dated 1827
Private collection
5
Heinrich Bürkel
A farrier at work in his smithy in the mountains, dated 1844
Private collection
6
Heinrich Bürkel
A painter saving his life up into a tree from a furious bull, c. 1845-1850
Private collection
7
Heinrich Bürkel
Circus at rest in a barn, c. 1867-1868
8
Heinrich Bürkel
Village Fair in Tirol, dated 1830
Berlin (city, Germany), Nationalgalerie (Berlijn), inv./cat.nr. W.S. 30
In his early days, Friedrich Gauermann (1807-1862) had copied pictures of Jacob van Ruisdael [9-10] and Paulus Potter in Vienna and the landscapes with animals from his first period are not free from reminiscences of Jacob van Ruisdael’s forests and Paulus Potter’s animals [11-14].3 The romantic tone in his paintings, however, awakens memories of Aelbert Cuyp and Nicolaes Berchem. Despite the change in taste, Berchem’s legacy was not completely forgotten, and complemented with a ‘Cuyp Renaissance’ as a new element [15-16].
9
Jacob van Ruisdael
Wooded landscape with travelers on a forest path, ca. 1660
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, inv./cat.nr. 456
10
Friedrich Gauermann after Jacob van Ruisdael
Wooded landscape with travelers on a forest path, dated 1823
Whereabouts unknown
11
Friedrich Gauermann
Cow shepherds resting in the meadow next to their cows, dated 1829
Vienna, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, inv./cat.nr. 3011
12
Friedrich Gauermann
The Hay Wagon, dated 1837
Vienna, private collection Liechtenstein - The Princely Collections, inv./cat.nr. GE 2103
13
Friedrich Gauermann
Cattle and horse grazing under a tree, dated 1849
Sankt Pölten, Niederösterreichische Landesmuseum, inv./cat.nr. 5860
14
Friedrich Gauermann
The farrier at work in his smithy, dated 1828
Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, inv./cat.nr. GM2003
15
Friedrich Gauermann
A peasant woman milking a cow with cattle on a farmyard, documented 1823
Whereabouts unknown
16
Friedrich Gauermann
Evening on the Alps at Berchtesgaden, dated 1840
Vienna, private collection Arthaber
Johann Nepomuk Rauch (1804-1847) [17-18] was inspired by Nicolaes Berchem and Paulus Potter, and Friedrich Voltz (1817-1886)4 [19-20] and Richard Burnier (1828-1884) [21-22] are unthinkable without the example of Aelbert Cuyp.5 Even a contemporary artist like Erik Richter (1889-1981) painted landscapes in Cuyp’s yellow light [23], flowers in the manner of Jan van Huijsum and interiors à la Johannes Vermeer.6
17
Johann Nepomuk Rauch
Cowherds in Kuz'minki, dated 1836
18
Johann Nepomuk Rauch
Landscape with Bull and Cow, dated 1835
Sint-Petersburg, Hermitage, inv./cat.nr. ГЭ-10482
19
Friedrich Voltz
Cows by the lakeshore with fishing boat, dated 1871
20
Friedrich Voltz
Shepherdess resting with herd in a thunderstorm landscape, dated 1854
21
Richard Burnier
Dutch river landscape with cows in a flooded meadow, dated 1875
Düsseldorf, Museum Kunstpalast
22
Richard Burnier
Cattle by the canal, dated 1874
23
Erik Richter
Landscape, dated 1938
Whereabouts unknown
24
Christian Ezdorf
View of Eisenhammer in Sweden, dated 1835
Munich, Neue Pinakothek
The generation of romantic landscapists from the end of the 18th century looked for support of their aspirations to the moody Jacob van Ruisdael and the tedious Jan Wijnants.7 Caspar David Friedrich didn’t need such help, but lesser talents needed a model. Painters who came from Scandinavia or who painted Nordic scenes, like Johann Christian Dahl and Christian Ezdorf (1801-1851), found the mountain romanticism they were looking for in Jacob van Ruisdael and Allaert van Everdingen [24-26].
25
Christian Ezdorf
The torrent, after 1821
London (England), Victoria and Albert Museum, inv./cat.nr. 1556-1869
26
Christian Ezdorf
Landscape with hunting scene, dated 1826
Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, inv./cat.nr. NM 1127
27
Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller after Jacob van Ruisdael
Forest landscape with shepherd and flock, dated 1824
Even Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller (1793-1865) started as a copyist of Dutch and Italian paintings for the lack of another teacher. His copies after Ruisdael are by no means his worst; they came into being when he visited the Dresden Gallery in 1827, although he had trained himself in copying already in Vienna [27-30].8 Waldmüller later utterly condemned copying and declared it useless for himself and others.9 All the same, in his youth, he painted some paintings in the manner of the old masters and his solid technique was most certainly a positive result from this unworthy business. His redemption came from the study after nature, as he stated himself. This is certainly correct, as he only became a creative artist from that time on.
28
Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller after Jacob van Ruisdael
Wooded landscape with a view of the Jewish cemetery 'Beth Haim' in Ouderkerk a/d Amstel, dated 1826
29
Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller after school of Jacob van Ruisdael
Forest road with hunting party, dated 1826
30
Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller after Adriaen van de Velde
Dutch polder landscape with cattle and milking peasant woman, dated 1822
The number of Jacob van Ruisdael followers was considerable in those days. The painter and etcher Friedrich Preller I (1804-1875) made such copies in his youth [31-33],10 while Carl Heinrich Rosenkranz (1801-1851) from Frankfurt am Main ‘studied Nature, Jacob van Ruisdael and Allaert van Everdingen’ [34-36].11
31
Jacob van Ruisdael
View of Bentheim castle, early 1650s, early 1650s
Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, inv./cat.nr. 1496, inv./cat.nr. 1496
32
Friedrich Preller (I) after Jacob van Ruisdael
View of Bentheim castle, dated 1822
Weimar, Stiftung Weimarer Klassik und Kunstsammlungen, inv./cat.nr. G 84
33
Friedrich Preller (I)
Dolmen on the island of Rügen, dated 1843
Regensburg, Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie
34
Carl Heinrich Rosenkranz
Old chapel at the edge of a wood
35
Carl Heinrich Rosenkranz
Landscape with forest edge, dated 1833
36
Carl Heinrich Rosenkranz
View of Falkenstein, Taunus
Frankfurt am Main, Städel Museum
The honey-sweet Carl Friedrich Lessing (1808-1880) [37-39],12 Johann Wilhelm Schirmer (1807-1863) and Andreas Achenbach (1815-1910) from Düsseldorf, couldn’t live without this example. Schirmer still wavered sometimes between Jan Both and Jacob van Ruisdael [40], but the latter attracted him more and more [41].13 Achenbach´s torrents would often be completely outdated and old-masterly, if modern staffage didn’t disturb the harmony [42-45].14
37
Carl Friedrich Lessing
The Millennial oak, dated 1837
Frankfurt am Main, Städel Museum, inv./cat.nr. 1011
38
Carl Friedrich Lessing
The Siege of a Cemetery (An episod from the Thirty Years War), dated 1848
Düsseldorf, Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, inv./cat.nr. 4037
39
Carl Friedrich Lessing
Churchyard with mortuary ruins, dated 28 September 1826
Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv./cat.nr. RF 1999-10
40
Johann Wilhelm Schirmer
Evening, dated 1857
Karlsruhe, Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, inv./cat.nr. 1857
41
Johann Wilhelm Schirmer
Path on the edge of the wood, c. 1851
Hamburg, Hamburger Kunsthalle, inv./cat.nr. 1312
42
Andreas Achenbach
Water mill near a village, dated 1907
43
Andreas Achenbach
Water mill in Westphalia, dated 1883
44
Andreas Achenbach
Mountain landscape with stream an watermill, dated 1864
45
Andreas Achenbach
Mountain stream with fisherman, dated 1863
Schweinfurt, Museum Georg Schäfer, inv./cat.nr. 82148813
Charles Hoguet (1821-1870) from Berlin approached Ruisdael somewhat more independently [46-48].15 Otto Frölicher (1840-1890) seems to me to be a good example of an artist who created panoramic landscapes, first in Munich and then in Paris, after the example of Georges Michel in the Dutch way, which do not lack a certain grandeur [49-51].16
46
Charles Hoguet
Approaching storm, dated 1846
47
Charles Hoguet
Landscape with rocks and waterfall, dated 1846
Munich, art dealer Galerie Dr. Fresen
48
Charles Hoguet
The Marksburg on the River Rhine, dated 1869
49
Otto Frölicher
Emerging thunderstorm near the Ammer river, dated 1889
Solothurn, Kunstmuseum Solothurn, inv./cat.nr. GKS333
50
Otto Frölicher
Landscape with tree, c. 1878
Aarau, Aargauer Kunsthaus, inv./cat.nr. 669
51
Otto Frölicher
Wooded landscape with a rapid
Notes
1 [Van Leeuwen 2018] The early works of Rudolf Kuntz probably are rather similar to those of his father. Maybe Gerson referred to a work in the Mannheimer Schlossgalerie. We couldn’t retrieve an image.
2 [Gerson 1942/1983] A very Dutch painting by him in the manner of Wouwerman and Lingelbach: Auction Frankfurt, 17 February 1925, no. 30 [=fig. 3, ed.]. [Van Leeuwen 2018] On Bürkel: Bühler/Krückl 1989.
3 [Gerson 1942/1983] Frimmel 1918; Frimmel 1908. [Van Leeuwen 2018] On Gauermann: Feuchtmüller 1987. Gauermann was the son of an engraver and collected prints and drawings. He also copied Philip Wouwerman (e.g. RKDimages 269576), who also had an impact on his work (e.g. RKDimages 291452 and 291501).
4 [Van Leeuwen 2018] Voltz travelled to the Netherlands in 1846 and visited the Mauritshuis in The Hague, where he studied The Bull of Paulus Potter. Back in Munich he made steel engravings after paintings of Potter, Philips Wouwerman and Frans Adam van der Meulen (Passavant 1851, nos. 140, 164 and 166). RKDimages 231376, 251750 and 229402.
5 [Gerson 1942/1983] E.g. Cows near the Water, illustration in Willemsen 1914, p. 545. [Van Leeuwen 2018] Burnier was born in The Hague, where he went to the academy before he went to the Düsseldorf academy. Subsequently he studied with Constant Troyon in Paris. Burnier mixed the Düsseldorfer Malerschule with the School of Barbizon and the Dutch landscape painters of the 17th century. On Burnier: Düsseldorf 1965.
6 [Gerson 1942/1983] Exhibition Munich 1938. [Van Leeuwen 2018] No still-lifes or interiors were among the artworks by Erik Richter on the exhibition in Munich , nos. 792-796. Gerson must have seen the paintings, as he wrote about the ‘yellow light’, and in the catalogue is only one black-and-white illustration. We could not find other images to illustrate what Gerson was aiming at.
7 [Van Leeuwen 2018] On the impact of especially Ruisdael on foreign landscape painters in the 19th century: Rosales Rodríguez 2016, p. 273-319.
8 [Gerson 1942/1983] Berggrün 1887; Frimmel 1904; Frimmel 1910. Copies after Ruisdael, Adriaen van de Velde, Potter e.g. in Städtische Gemäldegalerie, Budapest; Johanneum in Graz; former collection Berggrün, auction Budapest 15 February 1923, no. 647; Auction Vienna 20 March 1918, no. 218, etc. [Van Leeuwen 2018] Copies after Ruisdael: Feuchtmüller 1996, nos. WV 109. 144, 145, 147, 148, 186, 187. Copies after Potter: Feuchtmüller 1996, nos. WV 126, 146. Copy after A. van de Velde: Feuchtmüller 1996, no. WV 110. In Vienna Waldmüller copied Ruisdael and Potter under direction of Johann Nepumuk Schödlberger (1779-1853).
9 [Van Leeuwen 2018] Voermann 2012, p. 43-45.
10 [Gerson 1942/1983] Ruland 1904, p. 9. [Van Leeuwen 2018] Voermann 2012, p. 324, fig. 23-24. Preller made copies after Jacob Ruisdael and Paulus Potter in the Galleries in Dresden in the summers of 1821 and 1822. In 1824-1826 he studied at the Academy in Antwerp, with a stipend of Duke Carl August von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach. On Preller: Weinrautner 1997.
11 [Gerson 1942/1983] Gwinner 1862, p. 451. [Van Leeuwen 2018] Although Thieme/Becker lists this artist as ‘Heinrich Rosenkranz’, his correct name is probably Carl Heinrich Rosenkranz, as he used the monogram ‘C.H.R.’ Particularly Ruisdael had a long-lasting impact on his work.
12 [Van Leeuwen 2018] On Lessing: Sitt 2000.
13 [Gerson 1942/1983] In Schirmer’s estate sale, two copies after Ruisdael and a ‘Reminicencz’ by Schirmer after Rembrandt are recorded (Karlsruhe 1863, p. 4-5, nos. 6 and 29-30). [Van Leeuwen 2018] On Schirmer: Holsten/Theilmann et al. 2002.
14 [Van Leeuwen 2018] On Achenbach: Ponten 1983, Baumgärtel et al. 2016-2017. In the last composition, RKDimages 291640, dated 1907, there are even blast-furnaces visible next to the church tower; nevertheless there still is a Ruisdael atmosphere.
15 [Van Leeuwen 2018] On Hoguet: Häder 1999, p. 260, Nerlich/Savoy et al. 2013-2015, vol. 1 (2013), p. 117-120.
16 [Van Leeuwen 2018] On Frölicher: Hohl-Schild 1990. Obviously, Gerson observed the resemblance to the work of Philips Koninck, which also was the source of inspiration for Georges Michel.