Jakob Philipp Hackert

T.M. Boyle Esq., London
By whom sold, London, Sotheby's, 8 November 1972, lot 84, for £2,400 to Herner Wengraf;
With Herner Wengraf Gallery, London
From whom acquired by a private collector:
By whom anonymously sold ("The Property of a Gentleman"), London, Sotheby's 17 December 1998, lot 76;
There purchased by the present collector.

W. Krönig and R. Wegner, Jakob Philipp Hackert, Der Landschaftsmaler der Goethezeit, Cologne 1994, p. 65, reproduced plate 80;
C. Nordhoff and H. Reimer, Jakob Philipp Hackert 1737-1807, Berlin 1994, vol. II, p. 116, cat. no. 243, p. 355, under cat. no. 868, reproduced vol. I, fig. 121.

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 is in lovely condition. The canvas has been lined, and the surface is stable and still nicely textured. The cracking is restrained to a very attractive level. The painting is cleaned, varnished and in remarkably good condition. There are no retouches of any note, and certainly no abrasions or damages. The work should be hung as is.
"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."

This dramatic waterfall landscape was painted following a trip Hackert made through Lazio and Abruzzi in the spring of 1793.  A drawing in pen and sepia ink of this composition, signed, dated and inscribed La Cascata delle/Anatrelle che il/Garigliano fa a quarto milia/distante del Isola di Sora Filippo Hackert/f. 1793, is in the Kupferstich-Kabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden (fig. 1).  The drawing omits the goats grazing in the foreground, but otherwise the painting and drawing correspond almost exactly.  The date of the drawing presumably corresponds to that of this painting (which seems to have been cut off during relining of the canvas).  Another painting by Hackert, signed and dated 1793, formerly at Potsdam, Marmorpalais and now lost, depicts the cascade from the other side; it is also closely derived from a drawing of that year in the Kunstsammlungen, Dresden.¹

Anitrella lies to the southwest of the town of Isola di Liri (called Isola di Sora in Hackert’s time) and the 40 meter high cascade is where the river Liri emerges from the foothills of the Abruzzi.  In a letter to Graf Dönhoff, dated 15 October 1793, Hackert recalled his journey from earlier that year, describing Isola di Sora as “ein zweytes Tivoli (a second Tivoli").  He continues:  “und 4 Milien von Isola ale Anatrelle wo die Iri (Liri) sich durch Felsen in ein tiffes Thal stürzet eines der Schönsten Wasserfälle die ich jemahls gezeichnet habe. er war für die Kunst ganz unbekant, ich bin der Erste gewesen der ihn in dissem Jahrhundert gezeichnet hat.² (and four miles from Isola to Anatrella, where the river Liri surges from the hills into a deep valley is one of the most beautiful waterfalls that I have ever drawn.  It was entirely unknown in Art, I was the first to have drawn it in our century.").

1.  See C. Nordhoff and H. Reimer, op.cit., vol. II, pp. 115-16, cat. no. 242, reproduced vol. I, p. 169, fig. 120 (painting) and pp. 354-55, cat. no. 867, reproduced vol. I, p. 318, fig. 424 (drawing).
2.  Ibid., pp. 354-55, under cat. no. 867.