Jakob Philipp Hackert

Possibly painted for Count Andrey Razumovsky (1752-1836);
Anonymous sale, Lucerne, Galerie Fischer, 8 November 2006, lot 1082, where acquired.

C. Nordhoff, Jakob Philipp Hackert, Briefe (1761-1806), Gottingen 2012, p. 437, reproduced fig. 19.

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 has a recent Italian lining and a new stretcher. The cracking is very slightly raised in the waterfall and in the landscape above. There seems to be no visible abrasion. There are a few small dents or punctures running horizontally across the top of the hill in the distance and in the sky in the upper right and upper left. These have not been restored and could be attended to. There are a few spots of retouching at the top of the waterfall on the right side, in the mist above the waterfall in the center, in the lower right corner, and in a few spots in the dark tree trunk directly above the cows in the lower center. The retouches are very minimal. If the small depressions in the sky were restored, the picture could 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."

During his years in Rome, Hackert made sketching expeditions to the surrounding countryside and, as with so many of the landscape painters of the period, was drawn to the spectacular geography and waterfalls of Tivoli.  He painted numerous depictions of the scenery there which were in high demand by his clients. Two of Hackerts’s Tivoli views were acquired for the Tsar’s collection in St. Petersburg (now in The Hermitage) and another for Count Reventlow for his manor house at Emkendorf.¹  According to Dr. Claudia Nordhoff (see Literature), the present Tivoli view may have been painted for Hackert’s friend, Count Andrey Razumovsky (fig. 1), the former Russian envoy at Naples, who would later become an important patron of Beethoven.  In a letter of 11 March 1786 from Hackert to the Count, he refers to an order for a view of the cascade at Tivoli and it is possible that this painting, dated three years later, could be that picture.  During the period between 1786 and 1789, when this painting is dated, Hackert was already working on a major project for King Ferdinand, a series depicting the ports of the Kingdom of Naples, and this could account for the delay.  Goethe’s biography of the artist recounts how the artist was overwhelmed by orders and clients often had to wait years for their paintings.

This painting is accompanied by a copy of an expertise by Dr. Claudia Nordhoff dated 29 August 2006.  Dr. Nordhoff concludes that:  “Das Bild lässt sich als Meisterwerk Hackerts bezeichnen und bildet eine wertvolle Bereicherung der Werkgruppe mit Ansichten der grossen Cascatelle in Tivoli; sowohl in der Farbgebung als auch in der hervorragenden Wiedergabe des Wasserfalls und der pflanzlichen Details gehört es zu den Höhepunkten von Hackerts Schaffen (The picture can be described as a masterpiece by Hackert and constitutes a valuable addition to the group of views of the great waterfall at Tivoli; both in color and in the excellent rendering of the waterfall and the plant details, it is among the high points of Hackert's work).”

1.  See C. Nordhoff and H. Reimer, Jakob Philipp Hackert 1737-1807, Verzeichnis seiner Werke, Berlin 1994, vol. I, pp. 75 and 92-93, cat. nos. 169 and 204, reproduced vol. II, fig. 85 and color plate 26, respectively.