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Lot Essay
Eduard von Buchan was a pupil of Johann Christian Dahl at the Dresden Academy in the late 1820s and early 1830s. He also knew, and was influenced by, Dahl's great friend and fellow teacher, Caspar David Friedrich. Much of what is known about von Buchan the artist comes from Dahl's own correspondence. He exhibited occasionally at the Academy exhibitions in Dresden, and a handful of works by him are still known today. Of these, the present work is by far the finest, clearly bearing all the hallmarks of high German Romanticism.
Von Buchan began his career as an agent for the Rheinisch-West Indian Company, spending his time between Dresden and South America, where he oversaw commercial interests in Mexico, Argentina, Peru and Chile, before setting up his own trading company in Veracruz. Losing a large part of his fortune as quickly as he had made it to an unreliable partner, he returned to Dresden, where he established himself as a painter, dealer, and patron of the arts, including of his own teacher, whose canvases he collected.
Dahl sent von Buchan to his native Norway in 1831 to imbue his pupil with a sense of the natural grandeur that influenced many of his own more dramatic landscapes. It would appear, however, that the present work was painted shortly before that journey, as the mood is more melancholic, combining the spirituality and stillness that pervades the works of Friedrich with elements of Dahl's paintings of Danish landscapes. Helmut Börsch-Supan has suggested, for example, that the cornfield and farmhouse on the left, are explicit references to the latter (letter of 20 November, 2009). Other familiar motifs include the cliffs on the right, which recall those at Rügen and the lone figure on the right who, like the viewer, stares out from a high vantage point to an unspecified point beyond. Overtly religious symbols also abound: the cross-shaped timbers hidden in the shadows of the hut, the gnarled tree in the foreground -- its branches pointing heavenward -- and the church on the distant horizon. These motifs are all bathed in a soft, purplish light, while the tops of trees, emerge ghost-like from the morning mist.
All of the above are fused together into a frontal composition in which time stands still. Like Friedrich, von Buchan presents 'emotionally evocative contrasts between a shallow, immediate foreground and an otherworldly, unattainable distance beyond' (R. Rosenblum, The Romantic Vision of Caspar David Friedrich, New York, 1990, p. 9). The viewer stands at the end of a valley which opens out into the distance, as if having reached the limits of the material world, to be confronted by a sea of mist which leads, on the distant, horizon, to a church. It is as if we have 'reached the limits of the material world, where we must halt our physical movement and confront some ultimate vision, more spirit than substance.' (R. Rosenblum, op. cit., p. 10).
Although this meditative painting resonates with a wide variety of potential meanings, it distils a number of key Romantic themes: nature as a vehicle for the spiritual and man's commununion with it, religious awakening, and the separation of the earthly and the heavenly.
Notwithstanding von Buchan's ability to fuse together so many different elements into a whole, the present work clearly reveals an artist of great technical ability. In particular, the painting of the sky reveal a profound understand of tonal harmonies, the softness of which provide a vivid foil to the beautifully drawn and crisply delineated foreground motifs.
We are grateful to Professor Helmut Börsch-Supan for kindly confirming the attribution of the present picture.
Von Buchan began his career as an agent for the Rheinisch-West Indian Company, spending his time between Dresden and South America, where he oversaw commercial interests in Mexico, Argentina, Peru and Chile, before setting up his own trading company in Veracruz. Losing a large part of his fortune as quickly as he had made it to an unreliable partner, he returned to Dresden, where he established himself as a painter, dealer, and patron of the arts, including of his own teacher, whose canvases he collected.
Dahl sent von Buchan to his native Norway in 1831 to imbue his pupil with a sense of the natural grandeur that influenced many of his own more dramatic landscapes. It would appear, however, that the present work was painted shortly before that journey, as the mood is more melancholic, combining the spirituality and stillness that pervades the works of Friedrich with elements of Dahl's paintings of Danish landscapes. Helmut Börsch-Supan has suggested, for example, that the cornfield and farmhouse on the left, are explicit references to the latter (letter of 20 November, 2009). Other familiar motifs include the cliffs on the right, which recall those at Rügen and the lone figure on the right who, like the viewer, stares out from a high vantage point to an unspecified point beyond. Overtly religious symbols also abound: the cross-shaped timbers hidden in the shadows of the hut, the gnarled tree in the foreground -- its branches pointing heavenward -- and the church on the distant horizon. These motifs are all bathed in a soft, purplish light, while the tops of trees, emerge ghost-like from the morning mist.
All of the above are fused together into a frontal composition in which time stands still. Like Friedrich, von Buchan presents 'emotionally evocative contrasts between a shallow, immediate foreground and an otherworldly, unattainable distance beyond' (R. Rosenblum, The Romantic Vision of Caspar David Friedrich, New York, 1990, p. 9). The viewer stands at the end of a valley which opens out into the distance, as if having reached the limits of the material world, to be confronted by a sea of mist which leads, on the distant, horizon, to a church. It is as if we have 'reached the limits of the material world, where we must halt our physical movement and confront some ultimate vision, more spirit than substance.' (R. Rosenblum, op. cit., p. 10).
Although this meditative painting resonates with a wide variety of potential meanings, it distils a number of key Romantic themes: nature as a vehicle for the spiritual and man's commununion with it, religious awakening, and the separation of the earthly and the heavenly.
Notwithstanding von Buchan's ability to fuse together so many different elements into a whole, the present work clearly reveals an artist of great technical ability. In particular, the painting of the sky reveal a profound understand of tonal harmonies, the softness of which provide a vivid foil to the beautifully drawn and crisply delineated foreground motifs.
We are grateful to Professor Helmut Börsch-Supan for kindly confirming the attribution of the present picture.