Oswald Achenbach

Anonymous sale, Cologne, Van Ham, 20 November 2009, lot 211.

Achenbach’s Italian vedute are among his most popular works. Having trained in Düsseldorf and studied the landscape of the surrounding area, Achenbach went on to visit Bavaria, northern Italy and Switzerland. It was upon journeying to Rome and the Campagna in 1850, and later to Naples and Capri in 1857, however, that his style developed to truly convey the sensation of plein-air landscape, focusing on the depiction of light and colour to emulate atmosphere. Here, the famous vista of Vesuvius is suffused with the evocative light of a late summer afternoon in southern Italy, permeating the painting with a quiet, idyllic atmosphere. The bright white used for the façade of the house, and likewise picked up in the retreating form of the horse in the foreground, provides a focus almost in the centre of the composition, leading the viewer’s eye towards Vesuvius. The figures on the roof of the building, and on the balcony beyond, are secondary to the relative forms of the cypress trees, the architecture, and the scene beyond. This viewpoint was particularly favoured by Achenbach, and the collection of houses and trees appear in other works by the artist, such as that sold at Christie’s, Amsterdam, 26 November 2004, lot 15.