Castle ruins, bathhouse and promenade of Tharandt

Details

Literatur:
Vgl. Anke Fröhlich-Schauseil, Landschaftsmalerei in Sachsen in der zweiten Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts. Landschaftsmaler, -zeichner und -radierer in Dresden, Leipzig, Meißen und Görlitz von 1720 bis 1800, Weimar 2002, S. 353, Kat.-Nr. 146, mit Abb. S. 419.

Provenienz:
Privatbesitz, Süddeutschland.

Description

At the end of the Plauenscher Grund lies the “small town of Tharandt, which has become very famous in recent years and whose view is depicted on this sheet. The stranger will find it if he turns left just in front of the little town and leaves the newly built bathhouse, which we see here, on his right hand on the incredibly beautiful meadow, then turns round and looks out over the charming landscape. […] The view of the area and the little town from the rock on which the church stands and from the ruins that we see here in the centre is just as charming. All this, and a mineral bathing spring, attracts many foreigners, some to visit, some to spend the summer, and gives this hidden area a very lively appearance in summer,” reads Gottlob Friedrich Thormeyer’s 1808 engraving “Dresden with its magnificent buildings and most beautiful surroundings”, in which he spread out the amenities of Dresden and its surroundings on 18 plates. The preparatory drawing, which is in the Albertina in Vienna (inv. no. 5429), was made by the Dresden veduta artist Christian Gottlob Hammer, whose delicately coloured watercolours catered primarily to a tourist audience. Hammer’s view was repeatedly reproduced by various engravers and Hammer himself also repeated his view several times in large-format watercolours – in 1810 in a watercolour in the Albertina (inv. no. 15052), from which our watercolour, also created in 1810, stands out with its stronger, altogether more intense colours. – Barely noticeable light-staining in the former mount, individual tiny spots in the sky. An inconspicuous crease in the lower left margin, a small rubbing above the signature in the lower right. Remnants of mounting all around verso, otherwise fresh colours and in very good condition.
Dr Peter Prange