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  • Drawings of the 19th Century – Castles and Forest Landscapes

  • Through the enthusiasm for ruins which began to appear in the 18th century on the one hand and a glorification of the Middle Ages which was central to Romantic artistic intentions on the other, depictions of historical castles and fortresses were quite common in 19th century art. More than just the buildings themselves, the interest lay in their being embedded in nature.

    A pictorial convention which originated in the 18th century presented the buildings from a lower standpoint, to which castles often built on notable landscape elevations – lent themselves in particular. In this manner, Ludwig Richter, for example, created some drawings. Richter travelled to Franconia in the late summer of 1837 for his publisher Georg Wiegand to draw cultural and landscape sights. These then served as models for the 30 steel engravings in ›Wanderungen durch Franken‹, published in 1840 by Wiegand as part of his series of books ›Das malerische und romantische Deutschland‹. The small format sheet ›Streitberg with Castle Ruins‹ is a drawing made on site, and the engraving in the book follows it exactly. During this trip, Richter must have captured the nearby Rabeneck castle in one or more drawings as it also appears in the volume. It is certain that on his way home to Dresden, Richter made the large format pen-and-ink drawing ›Medieval Castle in Forest Landscape‹, unusual for his œuvre, which dramatically depicts from below the castle perched high up on a rock spur.

    Apart from this staging of a castle as the highpoint of the surrounding landscape, the pictorial hierarchy could also be reversed, as was the case with one of G. Haderer’s aquarelles from the 1830s which shows a body of water in the foreground and middle ground, with the fortress almost completely hidden in the background. This is also true of Rudolf von Alt’s aquarelle ›View of a Castle in Wooded Valley‹ from the mid 1850s in which he presents above all a wooded valley which stretches toward Rosenburg castle, peaking out in the background along the Moldau.
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  • Exh_Title_S: Drawings of the 19th Century – Castles and Forest Landscapes
  • Exh_Id: 615
  • Exh_Comment_S (Verantw): Department of Prints and Drawings
  • Exh_SpareNField01_N (Verantw ID): 186
Works
Streitberg mit Burgruine
Mittelalterliche Burg in Waldlandschaft (Burg Rabeneck)
Blick auf ein Schloss in waldigem Tal
Ruine an einem Deich (Ruine mit viereckigem Turm)
Landschaft mit Teich und Bergfeste
Gebirgslandschaft
Landschaft mit Jäger und Hund
Die alte Kämpe an der Mulde
Schloss Wernigerode mit Brocken
Marienthal
Gebirgslandschaft mit Jagdzug
Waldlandschaft
Landschaft mit Bäumen