Rear view of the Houses at Schloßfreiheit
Eduard Gaertner1855
Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Berlin, Germany
Gaertner’s painting shows the area of middle-class Berlin that had to give way, during the Wilhelmine era, to the grand public face that the emperor and his family wanted to present. In 1896 the whole row of houses of the Schloßfreiheit on the banks of the Spree close to the palace was demolished and replaced with the Monument to Emperor. The name Schloßfreiheit came into being in 1678 when the Magistrate of Friedrichswerder was denied ultimate judicial control of this area. The fine bourgeois facades with their warehouses and gold and silver shops are overshadowed by the dome of the palace. On the opposite bank there are coaches, people out for a stroll, and children playing. The whole scene is framed by important works by Schinkel: on the right the Building Academy and on the left the bridge to the palace.
- Title: Rear view of the Houses at Schloßfreiheit
- Creator: Eduard Gaertner
- Date Created: 1855
- Physical Dimensions: w96.0 x h57.0 cm
- Type: Painting
- Inv.-No.: NG 7/93
- ISIL-No.: DE-MUS-815114
- External link: Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
- Copyrights: Text: © Prestel Verlag / Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin / Birgit Verwiebe, Photo: © b p k - Photo Agency / Verein der Freunde der Nationalgalerie / Jörg P. Anders
- Collection: Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
- Artist dates: 1801 Berlin - 1877 Flecken Zechlin
- Artist biography: Eduard Gaertner was a German painter of the 19th century. He took his first drawing lessons at the age of ten. In 1813 he started as an apprentice at Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur (KPM) in Berlin. During this period he also studied drawing at the Academy of Art. After his training at the porcelain works he became a decorative artist under the court painter Carl Wilhelm Gropius in 1821, as well as creating stage designs based on plans by Karl Friedrich Schinkel. He later devoted himself to architecture painting, receiving commissions from the Prussian court and Friedrich Wilhelm II directly. His time in Paris, where he stayed for three years, influenced his work greatly, during which he was also exposed to and impressed by English watercolour painters of the likes of John Constable. In 1828 he returned to Berlin where he worked as an independent painter. Gaertner is appreciated for his detailed but vivid depiction of city architecture and he created a number of pictures of Berlin city scenes. In 1833 he became a member of the Academy of Art. After the death of Friedrich Wilhelm II, who had been a keen patron of his art, Gaertner’s style changed, abandoning the clarity of Neoclassicism in favour of Romantic elements, befitting the spirit of the time and the personal taste of the new king. His sexpartite panorama of Berlin is considered the pinnacle of his life’s work. Other famous compositions are 'Berlin, Unter den Linden' (1852/53) and 'Parochialstraße in Berlin' (1831).
- Artist Place of Death: Flecken Zechlin, Germany
- Artist Place of Birth: Berlin, Germany
- Artist Dates: 1801-06-02/1877-02-22
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