Andreas Achenbach Figures in a Landscape under Dark Skies

An original mid-19th-century watercolour painting, Andreas Achenbach, Figures in a Landscape under Dark Skies.

A fantastic signed work in watercolour and graphite by the 'father of 19th-century German landscape painting', Andreas Achenbach (1815–1910). This picture has until now been hidden from view in a Victorian album.

Achenbach is considered to be one of the founders of the Düsseldorf School, which grew out of and was a part of the German Romantic movement. Leading members of the Düsseldorf School advocated painting 'en plein air' and tended to use a palette with relatively subdued and even colours. Although there was no single unifying style of the School, their work was often characterised by finely detailed, extravagant and fanciful landscapes. This spirited landscape sketch shares these qualities and appears to be a capriccio, in which Achenbach has chosen to include starkly stripped trees, looming storm clouds and huddled figures to create a sense of drama. In later years Achenbach was identified as a pioneer of the German realist school and became particularly known for his moody, atmospheric seascapes of the Northern European coast, featuring dark skies or tempestuous waters.

Born in Kassel, Germany in 1815, Achenbach studied at a young age under German Romantic painter Friedrich Wilhelm von Schadow at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. He then travelled to the Netherlands and had his first real success in 1836 with an exhibition in Cologne, where one of his paintings was purchased by the Governor of Rhine Province, Prince Frederick. After a tour of Bavaria and Tyrolia, he settled in Frankfurt where he opened a studio at the Städelsche Kunstinstitut. He travelled continuously, however, often in the company of his brother, Oswald Achenbach, who was also a painter, throughout Scandinavia and Italy. He received many honours throughout his life, including the Order of leopold (1848), Order of Saint Stanislaus (1861) and the Order of St Olav (1878). He became an honorary member of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1853 and a member of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in 1862. In 1885, he was named an honorary citizen of Düsseldorf.

His works can be found in a number of important public collections, including the Berlin National Gallery and the New Pinakothek in Munich, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

On paper laid down on backing paper.