Lot 1162 | Cologne

GERMAN MASTER
19th C.
Title: Cologne.
View from the Deutzer side to the city before the extension of the cathedral.
Technique: Watercolour on paper.
Mounting: Mounted. Measurement: 56 x
91cm. Frame/Pedestal: Framed.
Provenance:
A gift from the city of Cologne to the cathedral master builder Ernst Friedrich Zwirner (1802-1861);
since then in family possession.

In the view of Cologne shown here, an imposing suspension bridge, which was never built like this, crosses the Rhine. In 1855-59 the first (railway) bridge, later called the "Dombrücke", was built according to the designs of Johann Heinrich Strack; the models of the portal and pillar buildings can be found in the Gürzenich and old fortress buildings. This then innovative bridge construction was the predecessor of today's Hohenzollern Bridge.
The suspension bridge on our watercolour is considered a preliminary design, also by Johann Heinrich Strack and Karl Lentze, which must have been created around 1850. A further version of this design with variations in the front bank development and vegetation can be found in a publication from 1981, see
J. Breuer: Die Kölner Domumgebung als Spiegel der Domrezeption im 19. Jahrhundert. Rheinland-Verlag 1981. Landeskonservator Rheinland, Arbeitsheft 10, p.68.

We are grateful to Ulrich Krings, Cologne, for his kind support in cataloguing the present work.