The Norwegian artist Thomas Fearnley is without a doubt one of the most gifted European landscape painters of the early 19th century. Born in what is present-day Halden (Norway) in 1802, he was of British descent, with his surname attesting to his English roots. Later descriptions of him seem to suggest that he certainly inherited the bluff temperament of the Yorkshireman that his grandfather had been. Fearnley’s life is marked out by his incessant travel and his huge appetite for painting en plein air, at which he became an acknowledged master.
The artist received his formal training at the Drawing School in Oslo (1819-21) and the Royal Academy in Copenhagen (1821-23), and subsequently the Royal Academy in Stockholm, where he was influenced by the Swedish painter Carl Johan Fahlkrantz. Throughout the second half of the 1820s, Fearnley travelled throughout Norway and Sweden, and spent the period 1829/30 as a pupil of his compatriot Johan Christian Dahl, who was professor at the Academy in Dresden. There Fearnley also got to know the art of Caspar David Friedrich. It was Dahl who recognised the huge artistic qualities that Fearnley possessed, regarding him as the most gifted of his Norwegian students. It was also Dahl who encouraged Fearnley to broaden the range of his art by producing oil sketches that were true to nature [1].
Fearnley left Dresden in 1830 to spend the following two years in Munich, where he would become a leading proponent of plein-air sketching – applying the realistic approach that Dahl had expounded. Fearnley’s influence on his contemporaries was considerable, and the romanticist elements that he introduced into his outdoor studies, clearly showing his indebtedness to Dahl, had a substantial impact. Whilst in Munich, Fearnley treated with other young, Nordic artists who were also keen enthusiasts for realistic landscape art, like Wilhelm Bendz, Christian Morgenstern, Georg Crola and Christian Ezdorf [2]. During this time Fearnley’s art truly developed apace, with his work showing a sensitive eye for freshness of palette, unusual light effects and understated beauty of realistically conceived landscapes and townscapes.
Our oil sketch was produced whilst Fearnley travelled throughout Bavaria in the summer of 1830. He stopped at the small market town of Berchtesgaden, a picturesque village in south-east Bavaria, at the foot of the magnificent Watzmann mountain, near the Austrian border. Fearnley worked in and around Berchtesgaden during August and September 1830 [3]; our oil sketch was made in September 1830. It shows a small square in Berchtesgaden, with the Watzmann looming in the misty distance. The view is enclosed by the white-stuccoed houses on either side, with a small fountain, with its tinkling stream of water, adding to the overall quietude. In the distance the onion dome so typical of Bavarian churches can just be made out. Fearnley has chosen a remarkably challenging, angular view, allowing him to experiment with the way in which the warm, late-summer sunshine casts its rays of light on the buildings. Stripes of shadow are projected onto the wall on the right, whilst the leaves of the tree appear to be individually coloured, almost caressed by the sunshine, impressing upon the viewer the remarkable realism of the scene.
Fearnley has beautifully captured the thin blue sky of a clear day, and the evident preoccupation of the artist with the interplay between angular linearity and light may well have been a concern that he shared with his Danish friend and colleague, the artist Wilhelm Bendz (1804-1832), who, like Fearnley, had undergone the theoretical expositions of the great C.W. Eckersberg back at Copenhagen’s Royal Academy. It is also noteworthy that Fearnley decided to paint an unobtrusive little corner of Berchtesgaden, as opposed to recording a more obvious place, such as the main village square. This choice is not surprising: it was the keen eye of the realist painter seeking out the exceptional in an ordinary setting.
For the rest of his life, Fearnley continued to travel and paint restlessly all over Europe. After he left Germany in 1832, he visited and worked in Italy, Switzerland, France, England (especially the Lake District), Norway and Holland (Amsterdam) [4]. He returned to Munich in 1841, where he died of typhus in January 1842. His legacy as one of Europe’s most versatile and gifted painters of the early 19th century had been cemented by that time, and today his work can be found in leading museums all over the world.
___________________
1. "Dahl und Friedrich. Romantische Landschaften", exh.cat., Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, 2014, p. 196.
2. "Münchner Landschaftsmalerei 1800-1850", exh.cat., Lenbachhaus Munich, 1979, pp. 110-115.
3. "In front of nature. The European landscapes of Thomas Fearnley", exh.cat., The Barber Institute of Fine Arts Birmingham, 2012, p. 110.
4. Ibid, p. 13
The artist received his formal training at the Drawing School in Oslo (1819-21) and the Royal Academy in Copenhagen (1821-23), and subsequently the Royal Academy in Stockholm, where he was influenced by the Swedish painter Carl Johan Fahlkrantz. Throughout the second half of the 1820s, Fearnley travelled throughout Norway and Sweden, and spent the period 1829/30 as a pupil of his compatriot Johan Christian Dahl, who was professor at the Academy in Dresden. There Fearnley also got to know the art of Caspar David Friedrich. It was Dahl who recognised the huge artistic qualities that Fearnley possessed, regarding him as the most gifted of his Norwegian students. It was also Dahl who encouraged Fearnley to broaden the range of his art by producing oil sketches that were true to nature [1].
Fearnley left Dresden in 1830 to spend the following two years in Munich, where he would become a leading proponent of plein-air sketching – applying the realistic approach that Dahl had expounded. Fearnley’s influence on his contemporaries was considerable, and the romanticist elements that he introduced into his outdoor studies, clearly showing his indebtedness to Dahl, had a substantial impact. Whilst in Munich, Fearnley treated with other young, Nordic artists who were also keen enthusiasts for realistic landscape art, like Wilhelm Bendz, Christian Morgenstern, Georg Crola and Christian Ezdorf [2]. During this time Fearnley’s art truly developed apace, with his work showing a sensitive eye for freshness of palette, unusual light effects and understated beauty of realistically conceived landscapes and townscapes.
Our oil sketch was produced whilst Fearnley travelled throughout Bavaria in the summer of 1830. He stopped at the small market town of Berchtesgaden, a picturesque village in south-east Bavaria, at the foot of the magnificent Watzmann mountain, near the Austrian border. Fearnley worked in and around Berchtesgaden during August and September 1830 [3]; our oil sketch was made in September 1830. It shows a small square in Berchtesgaden, with the Watzmann looming in the misty distance. The view is enclosed by the white-stuccoed houses on either side, with a small fountain, with its tinkling stream of water, adding to the overall quietude. In the distance the onion dome so typical of Bavarian churches can just be made out. Fearnley has chosen a remarkably challenging, angular view, allowing him to experiment with the way in which the warm, late-summer sunshine casts its rays of light on the buildings. Stripes of shadow are projected onto the wall on the right, whilst the leaves of the tree appear to be individually coloured, almost caressed by the sunshine, impressing upon the viewer the remarkable realism of the scene.
Fearnley has beautifully captured the thin blue sky of a clear day, and the evident preoccupation of the artist with the interplay between angular linearity and light may well have been a concern that he shared with his Danish friend and colleague, the artist Wilhelm Bendz (1804-1832), who, like Fearnley, had undergone the theoretical expositions of the great C.W. Eckersberg back at Copenhagen’s Royal Academy. It is also noteworthy that Fearnley decided to paint an unobtrusive little corner of Berchtesgaden, as opposed to recording a more obvious place, such as the main village square. This choice is not surprising: it was the keen eye of the realist painter seeking out the exceptional in an ordinary setting.
For the rest of his life, Fearnley continued to travel and paint restlessly all over Europe. After he left Germany in 1832, he visited and worked in Italy, Switzerland, France, England (especially the Lake District), Norway and Holland (Amsterdam) [4]. He returned to Munich in 1841, where he died of typhus in January 1842. His legacy as one of Europe’s most versatile and gifted painters of the early 19th century had been cemented by that time, and today his work can be found in leading museums all over the world.
___________________
1. "Dahl und Friedrich. Romantische Landschaften", exh.cat., Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, 2014, p. 196.
2. "Münchner Landschaftsmalerei 1800-1850", exh.cat., Lenbachhaus Munich, 1979, pp. 110-115.
3. "In front of nature. The European landscapes of Thomas Fearnley", exh.cat., The Barber Institute of Fine Arts Birmingham, 2012, p. 110.
4. Ibid, p. 13
Little square in Berchtesgaden, 1830
Signed and dated lower right: TF Berchtesgaden 24.9. 1830
Oil on paper on board
28,5 x 27,5 cm
Provenance
Collection Lorentz Jacob Meyer, Norway;Collection Sophie Boeck, Oslo, by 1914;
Private collection, Oslo
Exhibitions
Thomas Fearnley 1802-1842, Christiania Kunstforening, February 1903, nr. 42a (Berchtesgaden);Jubileumsutstillingen 1814-1914, Oslo 1914, nr. 118 (Fra en by i Tyskland)
Literature
Sigurd Willoch, Maleren Thomas Fearnley, Oslo 1932, p. 70
The Norwegian artist Thomas Fearnley is without a doubt one of the most gifted European landscape painters of the early 19th century. Born in what is present-day Halden (Norway) in 1802, he was of British descent, with his surname attesting to his English roots. Later descriptions of him seem to suggest that he certainly inherited the bluff temperament of the Yorkshireman that his grandfather had been. Fearnley’s life is marked out by his incessant travel and his huge appetite for painting en plein air, at which he became an acknowledged master.
The artist received his formal training at the Drawing School in Oslo (1819-21) and the Royal Academy in Copenhagen (1821-23), and subsequently the Royal Academy in Stockholm, where he was influenced by the Swedish painter Carl Johan Fahlkrantz. Throughout the second half of the 1820s, Fearnley travelled throughout Norway and Sweden, and spent the period 1829/30 as a pupil of his compatriot Johan Christian Dahl, who was professor at the Academy in Dresden. There Fearnley also got to know the art of Caspar David Friedrich. It was Dahl who recognised the huge artistic qualities that Fearnley possessed, regarding him as the most gifted of his Norwegian students. It was also Dahl who encouraged Fearnley to broaden the range of his art by producing oil sketches that were true to nature [1].
Fearnley left Dresden in 1830 to spend the following two years in Munich, where he would become a leading proponent of plein-air sketching – applying the realistic approach that Dahl had expounded. Fearnley’s influence on his contemporaries was considerable, and the romanticist elements that he introduced into his outdoor studies, clearly showing his indebtedness to Dahl, had a substantial impact. Whilst in Munich, Fearnley treated with other young, Nordic artists who were also keen enthusiasts for realistic landscape art, like Wilhelm Bendz, Christian Morgenstern, Georg Crola and Christian Ezdorf [2]. During this time Fearnley’s art truly developed apace, with his work showing a sensitive eye for freshness of palette, unusual light effects and understated beauty of realistically conceived landscapes and townscapes.
Our oil sketch was produced whilst Fearnley travelled throughout Bavaria in the summer of 1830. He stopped at the small market town of Berchtesgaden, a picturesque village in south-east Bavaria, at the foot of the magnificent Watzmann mountain, near the Austrian border. Fearnley worked in and around Berchtesgaden during August and September 1830 [3]; our oil sketch was made in September 1830. It shows a small square in Berchtesgaden, with the Watzmann looming in the misty distance. The view is enclosed by the white-stuccoed houses on either side, with a small fountain, with its tinkling stream of water, adding to the overall quietude. In the distance the onion dome so typical of Bavarian churches can just be made out. Fearnley has chosen a remarkably challenging, angular view, allowing him to experiment with the way in which the warm, late-summer sunshine casts its rays of light on the buildings. Stripes of shadow are projected onto the wall on the right, whilst the leaves of the tree appear to be individually coloured, almost caressed by the sunshine, impressing upon the viewer the remarkable realism of the scene.
Fearnley has beautifully captured the thin blue sky of a clear day, and the evident preoccupation of the artist with the interplay between angular linearity and light may well have been a concern that he shared with his Danish friend and colleague, the artist Wilhelm Bendz (1804-1832), who, like Fearnley, had undergone the theoretical expositions of the great C.W. Eckersberg back at Copenhagen’s Royal Academy. It is also noteworthy that Fearnley decided to paint an unobtrusive little corner of Berchtesgaden, as opposed to recording a more obvious place, such as the main village square. This choice is not surprising: it was the keen eye of the realist painter seeking out the exceptional in an ordinary setting.
For the rest of his life, Fearnley continued to travel and paint restlessly all over Europe. After he left Germany in 1832, he visited and worked in Italy, Switzerland, France, England (especially the Lake District), Norway and Holland (Amsterdam) [4]. He returned to Munich in 1841, where he died of typhus in January 1842. His legacy as one of Europe’s most versatile and gifted painters of the early 19th century had been cemented by that time, and today his work can be found in leading museums all over the world.
___________________
1. "Dahl und Friedrich. Romantische Landschaften", exh.cat., Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, 2014, p. 196.
2. "Münchner Landschaftsmalerei 1800-1850", exh.cat., Lenbachhaus Munich, 1979, pp. 110-115.
3. "In front of nature. The European landscapes of Thomas Fearnley", exh.cat., The Barber Institute of Fine Arts Birmingham, 2012, p. 110.
4. Ibid, p. 13
The artist received his formal training at the Drawing School in Oslo (1819-21) and the Royal Academy in Copenhagen (1821-23), and subsequently the Royal Academy in Stockholm, where he was influenced by the Swedish painter Carl Johan Fahlkrantz. Throughout the second half of the 1820s, Fearnley travelled throughout Norway and Sweden, and spent the period 1829/30 as a pupil of his compatriot Johan Christian Dahl, who was professor at the Academy in Dresden. There Fearnley also got to know the art of Caspar David Friedrich. It was Dahl who recognised the huge artistic qualities that Fearnley possessed, regarding him as the most gifted of his Norwegian students. It was also Dahl who encouraged Fearnley to broaden the range of his art by producing oil sketches that were true to nature [1].
Fearnley left Dresden in 1830 to spend the following two years in Munich, where he would become a leading proponent of plein-air sketching – applying the realistic approach that Dahl had expounded. Fearnley’s influence on his contemporaries was considerable, and the romanticist elements that he introduced into his outdoor studies, clearly showing his indebtedness to Dahl, had a substantial impact. Whilst in Munich, Fearnley treated with other young, Nordic artists who were also keen enthusiasts for realistic landscape art, like Wilhelm Bendz, Christian Morgenstern, Georg Crola and Christian Ezdorf [2]. During this time Fearnley’s art truly developed apace, with his work showing a sensitive eye for freshness of palette, unusual light effects and understated beauty of realistically conceived landscapes and townscapes.
Our oil sketch was produced whilst Fearnley travelled throughout Bavaria in the summer of 1830. He stopped at the small market town of Berchtesgaden, a picturesque village in south-east Bavaria, at the foot of the magnificent Watzmann mountain, near the Austrian border. Fearnley worked in and around Berchtesgaden during August and September 1830 [3]; our oil sketch was made in September 1830. It shows a small square in Berchtesgaden, with the Watzmann looming in the misty distance. The view is enclosed by the white-stuccoed houses on either side, with a small fountain, with its tinkling stream of water, adding to the overall quietude. In the distance the onion dome so typical of Bavarian churches can just be made out. Fearnley has chosen a remarkably challenging, angular view, allowing him to experiment with the way in which the warm, late-summer sunshine casts its rays of light on the buildings. Stripes of shadow are projected onto the wall on the right, whilst the leaves of the tree appear to be individually coloured, almost caressed by the sunshine, impressing upon the viewer the remarkable realism of the scene.
Fearnley has beautifully captured the thin blue sky of a clear day, and the evident preoccupation of the artist with the interplay between angular linearity and light may well have been a concern that he shared with his Danish friend and colleague, the artist Wilhelm Bendz (1804-1832), who, like Fearnley, had undergone the theoretical expositions of the great C.W. Eckersberg back at Copenhagen’s Royal Academy. It is also noteworthy that Fearnley decided to paint an unobtrusive little corner of Berchtesgaden, as opposed to recording a more obvious place, such as the main village square. This choice is not surprising: it was the keen eye of the realist painter seeking out the exceptional in an ordinary setting.
For the rest of his life, Fearnley continued to travel and paint restlessly all over Europe. After he left Germany in 1832, he visited and worked in Italy, Switzerland, France, England (especially the Lake District), Norway and Holland (Amsterdam) [4]. He returned to Munich in 1841, where he died of typhus in January 1842. His legacy as one of Europe’s most versatile and gifted painters of the early 19th century had been cemented by that time, and today his work can be found in leading museums all over the world.
___________________
1. "Dahl und Friedrich. Romantische Landschaften", exh.cat., Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, 2014, p. 196.
2. "Münchner Landschaftsmalerei 1800-1850", exh.cat., Lenbachhaus Munich, 1979, pp. 110-115.
3. "In front of nature. The European landscapes of Thomas Fearnley", exh.cat., The Barber Institute of Fine Arts Birmingham, 2012, p. 110.
4. Ibid, p. 13
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