Lot 1553 Dα

In the 19th century, Fritz Bamberger's images of Spain occupied an extremely prominent position within the landscape genre in Germany. Munich was the main centre for landscape painting at this time, especially the circle of the Munich artists' association. Bamberger travelled to the Iberian Peninsula for the first time in the summer of 1849, with two further sojourns following in 1857 and 1868. He was captivated by the imposing natural phenomena of Southern Spain, the Sierra Nevada, Lake Albufera, and Gibralta.
In Munich, where Bamberger had settled in 1850, Count Adolf Friedrich von Schack was one of the principal ambassadors of Spanish culture in Germany. He had travelled the country many times and published seminal works on Spanish literature and art. Von Strack purchased seven oil paintings by Bamberger in the 1860s. His acquaintance with the Count brought the artist into contact with the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, who enabled his third journey to Spain. Bamberger's works typically depict panoramic landscapes using a dark foreground, bright mid-ground, and broad horizon. Still rooted in the spirit of the Romantic age, the artist filtered and rearranged the motifs of his landscapes to create an idealised vision of nature.