John Dugmore Bergkirche, Tharandt near Dresden

An original early 19th-century watercolour painting, John Dugmore of Swaffham, Bergkirche, Tharandt near Dresden.

An outstanding and rare grisaille watercolour by British draughtsman and grand-tourist John Dugmore of Swaffham (1793–1871).

The view shows the Bergkirche, or mountain church, at Tharandt in Saxony, Germany, nine miles southwest of Dresden. The area is best known as the location of the Tharandt Forest and the oldest academy of forestry in Germany, founded as the Royal Saxon Academy of Forestry by Heinrich Cotta in 1811. Cotta founded the academy to address the serious issue of deforestation due to logging, and Tharandt Forest thus became a model for the concept of sustainable forest management. The forest was used as a place of recreation by middle-class families, especially from Dresden. By the mid-19th century the town was becoming important as an industrial centre, for its mechanical engineering and manufacturing of drapery.

John Dugmore of Swaffham (1793–1871) was born into Norfolk nobility in 1793. He benefited from a deep classical education and developed a sophisticated taste in the arts. On moving to London to seek his fame and fortune at the Royal Court, he met the man who was to become his patron, William Charles Keppel (1772–1849), 4th Earl of Albermarle. It is believed that Dugmore was responsible for Keppel children’s education, and he accompanied one of Keppel's son's on a Grand Tour in 1820. Over a period of twenty months, he passed from Scotland to Western Bohemia, France, Switzerland and Italy, recording the sights and views he encountered. This watercolour is very probably the product of that tour.

Dugmore's work has been praised for not only being visual witnesses of the shape of many main and minor European cities, but also for his ability in feeling and amplifying the esthetic news which he was meeting place by place. It is thought that his drawing style varies according to the landscape, his German drawings being very linear and pure, and his French drawings are ‘touched’ by pencil and brush in a way that seems largely to anticipate the impressionist idea of the light.

On wove paper laid down on brown backing paper. Titled on separate strip of backing paper (now detached), 'Church of Plauen near Dresden', Plauen being an area near to Tharandt.

Provenance: William Drummond (Covent Garden Gallery, London).