Lot 1126 D α

Jakob Philipp Hackert moved to Paris, accompanied by his brother Johan Gottlieb, in 1765, remaining there for three years. At this point, the artist had already gained widespread international renown. Paris boasted an artistically minded public, among whom the landscape genre was held in particular regard due to the tradition established by Claude Lorraine. Hackert received numerous commissions in the city and there, as Goethe writes in his biography of the artist, he became a “wealthy and respected” man.
These two landscapes, designed as a pair, were painted in 1767: One year before Hackert left for Rome. They both show variations on the theme of nymphs bathing in a landscape, and Hackert presents a veritable handbook of possibilities for depicting this motif. One piece shows the nymphs on the right side of the image, bathing in a river opposite a grove of mighty trees, with the crumbling ruins of a round temple in the panoramic background. The other work places the nymphs in the centre of the composition with the river beginning on the left and winding its way into the distance, and the group of trees located on the right.
Bathing nymphs, either alone or as the retinue Diana, goddess of the hunt, had been a stock motif in the mythological landscape genre since its emergence in 16th century Venice. The nymphs are rarely shown actually bathing in the water, but rather standing or reclining beside its banks, providing the artist with an excellent opportunity to depict female nudes. Hackert follows in this long tradition of Arcadian landscapes, drawing also on his French patrons’ knowledge of the works of Claude Lorrain or contemporaries such as Claude-Joseph Vernet. For example, the large tree dominating one half of the image is a typical Lorrain motif, and the figures paddling in the shallow water are reminiscent of Dominichino’s famous “Diana”, thus creating parallels between this work and the mythological landscapes of Italy. The fanciful depiction of an overgrown antique relief with musical satyrs is an invention of the artist, showing his desire to appeal to his patrons’ nostalgia for the long lost Classical world. Hackert’s mastery of his art is evident in the depiction of the foliage of the large tree. The stump in the left foreground reminds us of the artist’s skill in the depiction of natural forms, which he honed in sketches made whilst walking in the surrounding countryside of Paris.
This pair of landscapes shows that Hackert did not need to first travel to Rome in order to learn and assimilate the classical landscape tradition. The “French Hackert” of Paris had just as much opportunity to study the Arcadian landscape, presenting his own version of the subject to an educated French audience.