Lot 2165 Dα

Like his role model Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840), Johann Friedrich Boeck was born in Greifswald. The island of Rügen with its impressive chalk cliffs also held a great attraction for the landscape and portrait painter Boeck. He based the present work on Friedrich's moonlit landscapes. The view leads over the rocky shoreline and the fishing village of Vitt, all the way to the lighter chalk cliffs of Cape Arkona. Fishermen have hung their nets to dry in the foreground on the right, in the direct light of the moon. Two figures can be dimly discerned on the bank. Sailing boats float on the calm waters. Boeck has clearly orientated himself on the style and composition of Caspar David Friedrich's atmospheric romantic landscapes. The work is painted in a thin layer of paint with clear outlines.

The topography of Boeck's composition bears close resemblance to a sepia drawing by Friedrich, which was published as an aquatint etching by Carl Friedrich Thiele in his "Picturesque Journey through Rügen" (1821) (see Helmut Börsch-Supan, Helmut Jaehnig, Karl Wilhelm: Caspar David Friedrich - Gemälde, Grafik und malerische Zeichnungen, Munich 1973, p. 272, no. 95, p. 273, no. 98). It can be assumed that Boeck knew of this model. However, the addition of the figures in the foreground give Boeck's painting its own, lively character.