Lot 814 | Gustav Bauernfeind | Under the Dome of San Marco in Venice

BAUERNFEIND, GUSTAV
1848 Sulz - 1904 Jerusalem

Title: Under the Dome of San Marco in Venice.
Technique: Oil on canvas.
Measurement: 62,5 x 53cm.
Notation: Signed and dated lower right: G. Bauernfeind 1881.
Frame/Pedestal: Framed.

Provenance:
Private collection Poland.

Gustav Bauernfeind, who is known to us today primarily as an Orientalist, gained his first experience as a painter and illustrator in Italy. For a long time, as a trained architect, he doubted whether he should continue working as a painter. He made numerous architectural sketches on his travels from 1873 onwards. In 1877 he undertook a purposeful journey to Venice and Chioggia with artist friends. It was here and subsequently in his studio that he produced his first oil paintings.
This painting shows one of the first attempts at a large-scale detailed architectural depiction. The idea for this was already formed in 1877, following the third journey. Sketches of the journeys, which are now in the Architekturmuseum in Munich, show this (inventory no. 1988/364 and 1988/23). It was not until1881 that he started working on the picture again in his Munich studio. Now, however, Bauernfeind had lost some of his interest in Italian views. The new impressions of his first trip to the Orient begin to gain the upper hand. During this period he was already planning the next trip to the Orient. Therefore this work is no longer fully executed, but left in a somewhat sketchy state, signed and dated. From 1882 onwards he only created Oriental motifs.
This picture marks a turning point in Bauernfeind's career. It is one of the last European motifs.

We are grateful to Petra Versteegh, Rekem, who has confirmed the authenticity of the present painting on the original.