Megalithic grave on the island of Rügen

Details

Provenienz:
Privatsammlung, Hessen.

Description

During his first trip to Italy (1827-31), Friedrich Preller had met Joseph Anton Koch, whose heroic landscape ideal had a decisive influence on him. In 1837, ailing and mentally distressed, he visited the island of Rügen on the recommendation of his doctor. Despite bouts of nostalgia for Italy, which subsided just as quickly, Preller found great favour with the North German landscape. He wrote to his wife: “With Ossian (a Celtic epic) in my pocket, I set off on my hike through various parts of the island. I spent whole days on the shores of the lake or on old barrows. I had once again found a field in which I thought I could create something new and interesting. I knew no greater pleasure than wandering alone through the heath in wind and weather, and so the south moved ever further away from me – it was precisely the opposite that began to warm me.” (J. Gensel, 1904, p. 54f.). This first sojourn marked a change in Preller’s work, away from the warm-toned hilly landscapes near Olevano and towards the harsh northern twilight landscapes with megalithic stone tombs and windswept oaks. In 1839, Preller travelled to Rügen once again, this time accompanied by his students Ferdinand Bellermann, Sixt Thon and Carl Hummel, followed by his third and final visit in the late summer of 1847.