Lot 2152 Dα

Inscribed on the reverse on the stretcher in blue chalk: 35 Rottmann

The present painting of an expanse of cloudy sky over a flat landscape in brown tones is extremely close in terms of motif and composition to one of Carl Rottmann's last works, which is entitled “Marathon” and is housed in the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin (inv. no. A I 209, ill. 1). Even the colour palette, reduced to a selection of brown, blue, gray and white tones, is identical in both works. In contrast, the work in the Nationalgalerie is more precise and clearly composed in its execution. “However, the painterly presentation of the present work is determined by furious gestures, as if the artist was working in a race against time.” (Rödiger-Diruf report).
The present work is probably the same one that was auctioned at Helbing in Munich in 1900 as lot 35 under the title “Greek Coast during a Thunderstorm”. In the auction catalogue at the time, reference was made to an etching in the magazine “The Graphic Arts” from 1883 (5th year, issue 1), which reproduces Rottmann's painting "Sea Coast in Storm" (today in Munich, Bavarian State Painting Collections, Schack Gallery, inv. no. 11519). The Helbing auction catalogue describes lot 35 as a “nature study for the master’s “Battle of Marathon” [Sea Coast during Storm], which reproduces the magnificent sense for nature through which this work excels in all its freshness and originality.”
The similarities between the present, recently rediscovered painting and the works in the Berlin National Gallery and the Munich Schack Gallery as well as another composition in private ownership (see exhibition cat. “Landschaft als Geschichte. Carl Rottmann 1797-1850. Court Painter König Ludwigs I.”, Heidelberg, Kurpfälzisches Museum, November 16th, 1997 - January 18th, 1998 and Munich, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, January 30th - April 13th, 1998, p. 337, fig. 190) lie primarily in the depiction of the sky. This work is probably the first version of this grandiose cosmic motif, which Rottmann used several times in his late work. For Prof Rödiger-Diruf, who has examined the work in person and to whom we would like to thank for her support in cataloguing, “the present painting represents a “prima idea” by Carl Rottmann, namely a first version of his impressive late compositions at the end of the 1840s”.