Leo von Klenze

Prof. Dr. h.c. Otto Friedrich Bollnow, by whom acquired circa 1948 in a bookstore in Munich.

Kunstverein, Munich, 1825.

Halbjahrs-Bericht über den Bestand und das Wirken des Kunstvereins in München für das Jahr 1825, Munich 1825, p. 19, cat. no. 160;
N. Lieb and F. Hufnagl, Leo von Klenze, Gemälde und Zeichnungen, Munich 1979, p. 77, cat. no. G4, reproduced.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This work on canvas has been lined. While the cracking is slightly raised in the sky, the paint layer is certainly not unstable. It is hard to identify any retouches at all, except in the shadowed long wall on the left side and in the dark wall across the bottom of the picture. The condition is particularly good. If the retouches were applied more accurately, the picture would be ready to hang.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Leo von Klenze is best known as an architect and one of the most important proponents of Greek Revival architecture in Germany during the first half of the 19^thcentury.  He worked as court architect from 1816 and, from 1830, as director of building for King Ludwig I of Bavaria.  His many grand buildings in Munich, including the Glyptothek (Ludwig’s museum for antique sculpture), and the Alte Pinakothek, changed the look and character of the Bavarian capital.  Von Klenze also worked for Ludwig’s son, King Otto of Greece, in Athens and for Nicholas I of Russia, for whom he built an extension of the Hermitage.

In addition to his architectural work, Von Klenze was also an accomplished painter and draughtsman.  He travelled to Italy frequently where he made numerous sketches of the landscape and architecture.  In 1823-4, he was in southern Italy and Sicily studying the remains of Greek temples, and this lovely view of Vomero in Naples may have been painted during this trip.  The identification of the site as the Villa Lucia on Vomero, though not specified in the 1825 Munich exhibition or in Lieb and Hufnagl (see Exhibited and Literature), seems quite convincing when compared to a painting of 1846 by the Belgian artist, Frans Vervloet (1795-1872), Villa Lucia on the Vomero Hill, now in the Museo di San Martino, Naples.  Von Klenze’s view is from further back and from a slightly different angle, but the architecture of the villa surrounded by a wall is the same, as is its position atop a rocky bluff.