Lot 265 | Louis Douzette | Moonlit Night over the Port of Venice

DOUZETTE, LOUIS
1834 Tribsees - 1924 Barth/Baltic Sea

Title: Moonlit Night over the Port of Venice.
Technique: Oil on canvas.
Measurement: 39.5 x 59cm.
Notation: Signed lower right: Louis Douzette.
Frame: Framed.
Recto: Numbered on stretcher and canvas: 12/78 as well as N.382.

Provenance:
Private ownership, Germany.

Louis Douzette, German painter and professor at the Berlin Academy of Arts, was particularly impressed by the effect of moonlight in the beauty of nocturnal landscapes. His so-called "moonlight paintings" bear witness to the idea of the Romantic movement of the 19th century: they take refuge in nature and represent a counter-concept to the Industrial Revolution. At the same time, they possess the first signs of the emerging Impressionism. After several study visits to the Baltic coast, Douzette decided to travel to France in 1878. Here he learned to appreciate and adapt the French plein-air painting of the Barbizon school. It was characteristic of the artists of this school to work in the open air in order to depict the natural light and shade conditions of the respective landscape in its natural colourfulness. The present painting demonstrates Douzette's artistic skill through the atmospheric interplay of the silvery moonlight and its reflection in the water as well as the surrounding vegetation. The loose and free painting style blends harmoniously into the dreamy darkness of the night.
"The Moonlit Night over the Port of Venice" is distinguished by the silvery light source set outside the painting, gently illuminating the coastal city. The arrangement of individual lights along the promenade finally allow the view to culminate at the dome of the baroque church "Santa Maria della Salute", which crowns the silhouette of the city. The moonlight enchants the sleeping city - mystifies it, as it were. His atmospheric, romantic, almost contemplative night landscapes rightly earned him the name "Moonlight Douzette".