Lot 1528 Dα

Schirmer's travels between the Ahr, Rhein, Mosel, and Main rivers, as well as later trips to Italy, France, Holland, and Switzerland supplied him with a wealth of motifs for his landscape paintings. His irrepressible desire to attain knowledge and train his eye through the observation of nature, as well as to discover the unique geological structures of the landscapes which he painted fuelled his creativity and inspired innumerable drawings and paintings. All of his works are rooted in a deep reverence of nature. His Romantic and atmospheric landscapes were frequently pastiches pieced together from countless sketches and studies, in which certain motifs were re-used and varied again and again.

Some of the works painted by Schirmer during his time in Düsseldorf in 1850, including the present canvas, were strongly influenced by the landscapes of Jacob van Ruisdael (1628/29-1682). Schirmer became professor of landscape and genre painting in the newly founded art school in Karlsruhe in 1854. He was promoted to director just one year later. Schirmer's relocation to Karlsruhe ushered in a new period in his career in which he began to paint religious motifs with increasing frequency. He remained in Karlsruhe as one of the most important landscape painters of his era until his death in 1863. As a teacher, Schirmer was able to disseminate his ideas about landscape painting to over 300 pupils throughout the years, including Andreas and Oswald Achenbach, Arnold Böcklin, and Hans Thoma.