Friedrich Gauermann Lot n° 54

Friedrich Gauermann, Rest on Lake Garda Oil on wove paper, mounted on wood. 15 x 20 cm. Framed. The oil sketch took a weighty role in the work of Friedrich Gauermann, it documents on the one hand his profound connection with nature, on the other hand his painterly potential. Already in the surroundings of his home in Miesenbach, he had been encouraged by his father to draw in nature and early on in his work appear in oil paint on paper nature studies of people and animals, of plants and trees, of landscapes and genre scenes. To the latter genre belongs our small painting, which shows a group of country people at Lake Garda. The atmospheric scene, bathed in southern light, tells of a group of country folk who have interrupted their walk along a high lakeside road to rest at a votive chapel. Several people appear to have settled in front of it, largely obscured by a white horse, while the cart appears to be pulled by two other barely discernible horses (or mules?). Sheep resting in front of it complete the picture of the picturesque group of travelers. The sketchy, open painting style of Gauermann makes a more precise knowledge of the figures difficult, which he also does not intend. A strong color tone of white, red and blue shines out from the confidently and loosely sketched group, contrasting with the earthy colorfulness of the foreground. Gauermann devotes great painterly attention to the background with the lake surrounded by mountains and the sky illuminated by the sun, because it conveys the desired atmospheric mood - it is not easy to decide whether it is an evening or morning mood. To capture the changing atmospheric phenomena in the course of the day in a picture on canvas or paper was the task of such spontaneously thrown oil studies. Gauermann repeated the motif in oil twice more in a similar manner (Bolzano, Landesmuseum, Inv. No. S. M. 50HOP.130, and Vienna, Akademie der bildenden Künste, Kupferstichkabinett, Inv. No. 7139). In the spring of 1838, Gauermann had traveled to Italy for the first time; from Trieste, the journey went via Venice to South Tyrol. On the way there, at a stopover, he and Joseph Höger visited the dilettante friend Domenico de Ballarini in Rovereto, where they also stayed. Gauermann was enthusiastic about Rovereto and reported to the engraver friend Friedrich Wilhelm Fink in Vienna that he had "made quite a few studies for an original picture. Namely, just now whole caravans of shepherds coming from Mantua pass through here to spend the summer on the southern Tyrolean Alps, resting here, staying in the open before Rovereto and then moving on again. It is very picturesque, with its own wagons with two wheels, mules, whole herds of donkeys with young ones, hundreds of the most beautiful sheep and goats, and the costumes are also original. In a moment, such a siesta will be started, with an evening illumination that I have seen so beautiful here. Several sketches drawn in the middle of you." (Quoted from Rupert Feuchtmüller: Friedrich Gauermann 1807-1862, Rosenheim 1987, p. 38). Gauermann recorded the impressions described in a sketchbook just as he did a visit to Lake Garda (Vienna, Albertina Museum, inv. no. 30583). He used these studies for his oil sketches and another three drawings that have become known so far (St. Pölten, Niederösterreichisches Landesmuseum, inv. no. 1064r and 1064v; Graz, Universalmuseum Joanneum, Neue Galerie, inv. no. II/9915; Vienna, Kunsthandel Hassfurther, auction 27.5.1999, lot 17). The intensive preoccupation with the subject, the elaboration of the pictorial idea in drawings and oil studies suggest that Gauermann planned to execute it as a painting, but such an execution is as yet unknown. Provenance: Kunsthandel H.O. Miethke, Vienna, with label on verso; private property, Germany. Taxation: Differentially taxed (VAT: Margin Scheme).