Landscape, Tirol

Grunewald enrolled in the Dresden Arts Academy in 1820 to study landscape painting and stayed for three years. Dresden Arts Academy was founded in 1764. It succeeded the School for Drawing and Painting founded in 1680, one of the oldest art academies in the German-speaking territories. The buildings were heavily damaged during the 1945 bombing of Dresden. In 1950, after restoration, the Dresden Arts Academy merged with the Public Academy of Applied Art; it is still a pre-eminent art school in Germany. Famous former teachers include Caspar David Friedrich, Otto Dix, and Oscar Kokoschka; notable alumni include Georg Grosz, Kurt Schwitters, and Gerhard Richter.

When Grunewald studied with Casper David Friedrich, Friedrich had been an instructor at Dresden for a number of years and was at the height of his powers as an artist. Grunewald absorbed Friedrich’s subjective style and his attention to accurate detail, as well as his Romantic appreciation for the beauty of nature in its pure, raw form. Friedrich noted in the records of the Dresden Art Academy: “He [Grunewald] shows much talent for painting.”

Reference and Quote From: Blume, Peter F. "Gustav Grunewald 1805–1878." Allentown Art Museum Publication, 1992. Pages 2-5.