Lot 2216 Dα

With the occupation of Naples by Napoleonic troops and the deposition of the Bourbon King Ferdinand IV, Jakob Philipp Hackert lost his well-paid position at the court in Caserta and his most important patron. In 1799 he fled to Florence via Livorno, where he built up a new existence as a freelance artist. Travellers from the north, Germans, Englishmen or Russians on their "Grand Tour" also sought out the well-known painter here and bought or ordered those beautiful, well-composed Italian paintings that were to keep their memories of the landscape and culture of this country alive in their homeland.


The present "River Landscape" of 1801 is one of these later works. As in earlier times, Hackert also undertook extensive walks in Tuscany in his last almost eight years, always in search of pictorial motifs. In this painting, the painter looks down on a wooded, gently rolling river valley from an elevated vantage point. On the left, the composition is supported by a large oak tree, on the right it is a mountain slope on which a small village with a church is situated. Hackert additionally emphasises the peaceful and happy mood of this landscape with rural figures. Animals and people are always an important element of his landscape painting.