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Lot n° 35

Johann Anton Castell

Estimate :
30 000 - 40 000 EUR

Johann Anton Castell (1810 - Dresden - 1867) - View of Dresden, moonlight. Oil on canvas. 1846. 52 x 74.5 cm. Signed ("JAC "ligated) and dated lower right. Framed. The life and art of the painter Johann Anton Castell are closely linked to Dresden. He studied there from 1827, initially in the landscape class and later in the academy's "art school". From 1829, he attended the studio of Johan Christian Clausen Dahl and followed the Dresden-based Norwegian's basic romantic mood. Castell undertook extensive study trips to Bohemia, Vienna and Tyrol, but he mainly found his motifs in the surroundings of the baroque art metropolis and in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains. The view of Dresden on offer is a brilliant example of Castell's art of painting; instead of showing Dresden in broad daylight, he depicts it in the night sky. The view sweeps from the left bank of the Elbe across a boat landing stage to the city skyline, which is bathed in a cool, silvery light from the low, full moon reflected in the water. Ever since Bernardo Bellotto had painted Dresden from the opposite right bank from the height of the Neustadt to the Pieschener Ufer, the so-called "Canaletto view" had been a leitmotif for 19th century vedutists. By changing the location, Castell moved the dome of the Frauenkirche to the center of the picture, surmounted only by the ship's masts rising into the midnight blue sky. Literature: Friedrich von Boetticher, Malerwerke des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts, 4 Bde., Dritter, unveränderter Nachdruck, Hofheim am Taunus, H. Schmidt & C. Günther, 1979 (first Fr. v. Boetticher's Verlag, Dresden 1891-1901) here vol. 1, p. 173, cat. no. 5 ("Ansicht auf Dresden, Mondschein"). Exhibition: Verzeichniß der (...) öffentlich ausgestellten Werke der bildenden Kunst, Königlich Sächsische Akademie der Künste, Dresden 1846, cat. no. 198 ("Mondscheinlandschaft, Ansicht auf Dresden"). Provenance: Private collection, France, probably since the 19th century; Grisebach, Berlin, auction, 30.5.2018, lot 111; Private collection, Germany. Taxation: taxed on a differential basis (VAT: Margin Scheme)

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