Christian Friedrich Gille Lot n° 12

Christian Friedrich Gille, Shepherd before Saxon Landscape. 1880. Christian Friedrich Gille1805 Ballenstedt/Harz - 1899 Dresden Oil on painting cardboard. U.r. extensively dated "Octb. 80" and monogrammed "G". Verso old inscribed in lead "G. F.Gille". Framed behind glass in a historicizing decorative frame with corner cartouches. On the back of the frame o.mi. a paper label, old artist's inscription and date in ink. Cf. the two small-format oil studies "Shepherd Boy with Herd", c. 1865/70. Spitzer, plate 48 and "Country Road with Peasant Woman", c. 1870/80. Spitzer, plate 69. Lit.: Gerd Spitzer: "Christian Friedrich Gille. 1805-1899. painterly discovery of nature". Petersberg 2018. We thank Dr. Anne Spitzer and Dr. Gerd Spitzer, Bad Harzburg, for kind remarks . Painting layer slightly soiled.The marginal areas with lesions, the corners clearly bumped, partly frayed as well as with missing parts of the painting layer, o.r. a small nail hole. In the lower right quarter of the picture some vertical cracks with slightly raised painting layer as well as small losses of colour. Within the picture several isolated small losses of the painting layer, partly retouched. Verso foxing. The frame with missing parts of the mass decoration. Dimensions: 36.3 x 24.6 cm, overall 43.7 x 30.7 cm. Christian Friedrich Gille 1805 Ballenstedt/Harz - 1899 Dresden From 1825 Gille began his studies at the Dresden academy of arts under the landscape copper engraver Johann G. A. Frenzel.From 1827-30 he was a pupil of Johann C. Dahl, who taught him landscape painting. Through Dahl's mediation and advocacy Gille got his first commissions as an engraver in the early 1930s, among others for the 'Bildchronik' of the Saxon Art Society. At the same time he worked with the lithographer Ludwig Theodor Zöllner, who taught him the new technique. However, Gille did not give up his interest in painting at that time. In intensive studies he created numerous small oil sketches and drawings, which in later years were also enriched by large-format works. However, he was never able to earn his living entirely on his own through his extensive painterly oeuvre, so that he continued to work as a graphic artist and at times also as a drawing teacher.