(Düsseldorf 1827–1905)
A majestic tree in the evening light, signed, dated Oswald Achenbach 1852, oil on canvas, 99 x 88.5 cm, framed, (Rei)

Provenance:
Christie’s New York, 26 February 1986, lot 52;
Eberhart Auktionen, Zurich, 17 June 1993, lot 153;
Private Collection, Germany.

Catalogued and illustrated in:
Andreas und Oswald Achenbach, Das A und O der Landschaft, exhibition catalogue, Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, 29 November – 19 April 1998, p. 87.

Oswald Achenbach was the younger brother of the equally famous landscape painter Andreas Achenbach. Both brothers, who were well-travelled thanks to paternal support, studied at the Düsseldorfer Kunstakademie. While Andreas specialized in northern scenery, Oswald dedicated himself to southern subjects. The present work was painted during one of Oswald’s many study trips to Italy, around 1850. At that time he was touring Olevano and its surroundings with his colleague Arnold Böcklin, whom he had previously met in Düsseldorf.

The present work is characteristic of the younger Achenbach brother’s oeuvre. Although it is a hunting scene, we are almost oblivious to the men in the foreground; we are drawn rather to the central tree. Bathed in a typical meridional light, it stands, massive, against the immense sky. This formal arrangement reminds us of Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller’s Prater landscape, where nature and light are the protagonists; the figures are merely staffage.
In both works the sky takes up two-thirds of the composition and the space is wide open. We are enveloped in a warm light and time seems to have slowed down. We are transported to a peaceful summer evening in the Italian campagna.