The Academy Courtyard (The Old Academy in Düsseldorf)

As a student of the Royal Prussian Academy of Art, Andreas Achenbach chose a view from the window of his parent’s apartment on Düsseldorf’s Burgplatz to depict his place of study. As of 1821, the academy had been housed in the Düsseldorf City Castle and the gallery building made for the art collection of Elector Palatine Johann Wilhelm; in its inner courtyard stood the marble statue by G. Grupello in memory of the Elector. The castle’s imposing southern wing, emphasized by bright sunlight and with its large studio windows on the right-hand side of the painting, stands out against the wing, which was damaged by French troops in 1794. On the shady left side, along the diagonal to the centre we see the main constabulary that marks the end of the square which was also used as a rag market. The work of the then 16-yearold member of the aspiring Düsseldorf School of Painting attracted great attention in the year it was made, namely 1831, when the Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westphalen acquired it for its raffle. (Sabine Schroyen)