Lot 2232 Dα

A view from a raised position onto a low-lying town by moonlight belongs to Carl Gustav Carus' well-known repertoire of motifs, and furthermore is typical for the atmospheric architecture painting in Dresden at that time. Nevertheless, our charming sheet with its nocturnal depiction of a church cemetery occupies a special place in Carus' work because of its unusually detailed representation of High Gothic architecture. Another drawing on blue paper in Carus' work, “Vew of the Dresden Dreikönigskirche by moonlight” is a good comparison (exhib.cat: Carl Gustav Carus. Natur und Idee, Ausstellung der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden und der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin, Berlin/Munich 2009, p. 85, cat.no. 66 with ill.).
Marianne Prause, compiler of the catalogue raisonné of his paintings, “Carl Gustav Carus. Leben und Werk” (Berlin 1968), verbally confirmed the drawing as a work by Carus to auction house Spink in 1981. It comes from the collection of Dr Heinrich Lahmann, the brother of the highly important Johann Freidrich Lahmann who owned almost sixty paintings by Carus (including the preceding lot).