View from the Praterinsel to the Siechenhaus

Details

Literature:
Richard Messerer, Georg von Dillis. Leben und Werk, Munich 1961, in: Oberbayerisches Archiv, vol. 84, cat. no. 19, ill. p. 126.
Exhibition:
Johann Georg von Dillis, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich 1959-60, cat. no. 34; Johann Georg von Dillis. Landschaft und Menschenbild, Munich/Dresden 1991, p. 100, cat. no. 20, with col. illus. Provenance:
Owned by Bavarian nobility for generations.

Descrizione

On his daily forays along the Isar, Dillis often stopped at the Praterinsel, where this oil sketch can also be located. At the centre of the depiction is a mighty deciduous tree with a hollow trunk rising diagonally through the picture plane and protruding over the edge of the bank. When the water level is low, the Isar reveals a gravel bank on which two figures are resting. At this point, the Isar is spanned by a wooden bridge, the so-called Quellwassersteg, which connects the Prater with the Gasteig. In the background, the right bank of the Isar rises, on the slope of which the white plastered façade of the Leprosenhaus is illuminated by the sun. Storm clouds gather in the sky, their pinkish-yellow reflections mirrored in the water. Despite all this, the scenery appears secluded and as if framed by nature.
The motif appears on numerous sheets from Dillis’ drawings, although the scene is always slightly different. A dated example from 1822 (no. D 2322) suggests that the present oil study could also have been created in the 1820s.