(Dessau 1785-1841 Munich) "Sieben Gegenden aus Salzburg und Berchtesgaden. Geordnet nach den sieben Tagen der Woche, verbunden durch zwey allegorische Blätter" (Seven places of Salzburg and Berchtesgaden representing the seven days of the week and united by two allegorical sheets), 1823, series of 6 (of total 9) chalk lithographs, each approx. 19,3 x 27,8 cm, one of the weekdays (Saturday) and the allegorical sheets missing, each mounted on a greyish green original cardboard support of the collectible edition of 1823, this one with washes and gilded framings, each sheet with subtitle within a brown inscription field below the depiction, framed, (6),(Sch)

Provenance:
Private collection, Austria.

Literature:
Nagler, Künstlerlexikon, Vol. 11, p. 453; Exh.Cat. German Printmaking in the Age of Goethe, by Antony Griffiths and Frances Carey, London 1994, pp. 209-214, No. 135; Giulia Bartrum and Daniel Goffrey in: Exh. Cat. Wahlverwandschaften, Eine englische Privatsammlung zur Kunst der Goethezeit, Weimar 2013, pp. 246-265, No. 65.

Ferdinand Olivier’s landscape depictions from the series "Sieben Gegenden aus Salzburg und Berchtesgaden" (seven places of Salzburg and Berchtesgaden) are not only the artist’s masterpiece but also the most significant and most impressive work of early German lithographs in the Romantic era. In July and August 1817 Ferdinand Olivier, his brother Friedrich (1791-1859) and their friend Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (1794-1872) visited Salzburg and the Berchtesgaden area with the intention to execute drawings. They wanted to translate their impressions in a series of landscape pictures, which should combine realistic depictions with religious allegories of Christian life. Translating the series into images Olivier turned to the lithographic print process which was invented quite recently at that time. He went for it although he was quite unexperienced with this new technique but compared to etching offered him better possibilities to render atmospheric effects of light and delicate shadings of tone and to achieve painterly nuances. In the artist and editor Adolf Kunike Olivier found an enthousiastic collaborator who had founded the Lithografische Anstalt in Vienna and who worked with him on the finishing of the series. It would comprise nine sheets. The lithographs were printed under the supervision of Olivier in 1823 (comp. Exh. Cat. Weimar 2013, Cat. 65, p. 246).

The present sheets originate from a „luxury edition” with trial proofs for "fürstliche und vornehme Liebhaber" (ducal and noble print lovers). The sheets are each trimmed along their fine margins and mounted on an original greyish green cardboard support which is decorated with washes and gilded framing lines. Below each depiction there is a brown inscription fields which bear one-line subtitles as opposed to “standard editions” whose subtitles, if at all existing, comprise two lines which are printed at the uncut lower margin of each depiction. The prints of the deluxe-edition differ in their elegant way of presentation and particularly in their careful realisation and high quality of execution. The present cycle comprises depictions of six week days; the sheet “Saturday”, the dedication sheet and the final allegorical sheet are missing.

The lithographs with their original mounting in the deluxe-edition of 1823 are extremely rare. Two copies are preserved in the Booth-Clibborn Collection, London and in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; another edition is kept in the Kupferstichkabinett in Basle and one copy of the luxury edition without the two allegorical sheets was sold on 26th May 2016 at Bassenge’s in Berlin (Lot 5492).

Provenance:
Private collection, Austria.

Literature:
Nagler, Künstlerlexikon, Vol. 11, p. 453; Exh.Cat. German Printmaking in the Age of Goethe, by Antony Griffiths and Frances Carey, London 1994, pp. 209-214, No. 135; Giulia Bartrum and Daniel Goffrey in: Exh. Cat. Wahlverwandschaften, Eine englische Privatsammlung zur Kunst der Goethezeit, Weimar 2013, pp. 246-265, No. 65.

Ferdinand Olivier’s landscape depictions from the series "Sieben Gegenden aus Salzburg und Berchtesgaden" (seven places of Salzburg and Berchtesgaden) are not only the artist’s masterpiece but also the most significant and most impressive work of early German lithographs in the Romantic era. In July and August 1817 Ferdinand Olivier, his brother Friedrich (1791-1859) and their friend Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (1794-1872) visited Salzburg and the Berchtesgaden area with the intention to execute drawings. They wanted to translate their impressions in a series of landscape pictures, which should combine realistic depictions with religious allegories of Christian life. Translating the series into images Olivier turned to the lithographic print process which was invented quite recently at that time. He went for it although he was quite unexperienced with this new technique but compared to etching offered him better possibilities to render atmospheric effects of light and delicate shadings of tone and to achieve painterly nuances. In the artist and editor Adolf Kunike Olivier found an enthousiastic collaborator who had founded the Lithografische Anstalt in Vienna and who worked with him on the finishing of the series. It would comprise nine sheets. The lithographs were printed under the supervision of Olivier in 1823 (comp. Exh. Cat. Weimar 2013, Cat. 65, p. 246).

The present sheets originate from a „luxury edition” with trial proofs for "fürstliche und vornehme Liebhaber" (ducal and noble print lovers). The sheets are each trimmed along their fine margins and mounted on an original greyish green cardboard support which is decorated with washes and gilded framing lines. Below each depiction there is a brown inscription fields which bear one-line subtitles as opposed to “standard editions” whose subtitles, if at all existing, comprise two lines which are printed at the uncut lower margin of each depiction. The prints of the deluxe-edition differ in their elegant way of presentation and particularly in their careful realisation and high quality of execution. The present cycle comprises depictions of six week days; the sheet “Sunday”, the dedication sheet and the final allegorical sheet are missing.

The lithographs with their original mounting in the deluxe-edition of 1823 are extremely rare. Two copies are preserved in the Booth-Clibborn Collection, London and in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; another edition is kept in the Kupferstichkabinett in Basle and one copy of the luxury edition without the two allegorical sheets was sold on 26th May 2016 at Bassenge’s in Berlin (Lot 5492).