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Gorge near Amalfi

Carl Blechen1831

Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Berlin, Germany

In 1828 Blechen travelled to Italy where the southern landscape with its particular colours and light inspired him to a whole number of paintings. He rode through the valley near Amalfi on a donkey, tirelessly sketching and drawing. Two years later, after his return to Berlin, he painted this mountain landscape. Bright light pours into the valley. A group of woodcutters are felling trees for the paper mill, seen with smoke ascending from its chimney. By the strength of the verticals in this picture and the striking contrasts of light and dark, Blechen lends a dramatic air to this extremely picturesque piece.

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  • Title: Gorge near Amalfi
  • Creator: Carl Blechen
  • Date Created: 1831
  • Physical Dimensions: w77.5 x h110.0 cm
  • Type: Painting
  • Technique and material: Oil on canvas
  • Inv.-No.: A I 319/7
  • ISIL-No.: DE-MUS-815114
  • External link: Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
  • Copyrights: Text: © Prestel Verlag / Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Photo: © b p k - Photo Agency / Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin / Jörg P. Anders
  • Collection: Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
  • Artist biography: Carl Blechen was a German landscape painter. After an apprenticeship as a banker, Blechen started his art studies at the Academy of Arts in Berlin in 1822. He made various study tours within Germany and spent some time in Italy before becoming a professor at the Academy of Arts in Berlin in 1835. The well known architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel appreciated his works and strongly recommended him for the post. Blechen repudiated Romanticism and was an exponent of a new realism. Considered a pioneer for his brilliant effects of light and colour, many of his paintings are distinguished by their brightness, rendered with a lightness of touch. 'View of Assisi' (1832–35) and 'Palm House on the Pfaueninsel near Potsdam' (1832–34) are among his most famous compositions.
  • Artist Place of Death: Berlin, Germany
  • Artist Place of Birth: Cottbus, Germany
  • Artist Dates: 1798-07-29/1840-07-23
Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

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