Lot 726 | Otto Grashof | Wide Landscape with Horses

GRASHOF, OTTO
1812 Prenzlau - 1876 Köln

Title: Wide Landscape with Horses.
Technique: Oil on canvas.
Measurement: 62,5 x 84cm.
Notation: Signed and dated bottom right of center: O. Grashof 1850.
Frame/Pedestal: Framed.

Provenance:
Private ownership, Argentina.

A landscape with gnarled trees and a wide view, in the foreground very prominently several detailed and masterfully executed horses and a herding boy, in the distance the silhouette of a church village, the whole scene under a wide sky. Otto Grashof shows us here in a landscape shot in the Lower Rhine, unusual for him, the quality of his painting art: the perspective foreshortening of the horses from different angles, the skillful treatment of the surface of the coat in contrast to the accentuated worked out leaves, his clear lines in the portraits. With such paintings he had success at the court of the tsars in Russia and was now, back in his native Cologne in search of new clients. The revolution of 1848 had left its mark and affected the life of the artist.

Otto Grashof was trained as a portrait and history painter in Berlin and Düsseldorf. At the Düsseldorf Academy he was a student of Wilhelm Schadow. Since the young artist had no professional opportunities after completing his studies, neither in the Rhineland nor in Prussia, he joined a merchant traveling to St. Petersburg in the hope of better work opportunities in Russia in early February 1838 - with success. He remained there and in Moscow until 1845, receiving commissions from the highest echelons of society, including the tsar's family. Tsar Nicholas I was sympathetic to German artists. At first, Grashof was supported by German merchants; they had me portrayed by him. Since the paintings were excellently executed, a large circle of people became aware of him: he also painted family portraits, equestrian scenes, bear hunts, the faith zealot Vasily Veliki and landscapes. He also devoted himself to historical subjects as demonstrations of Russian military history, such as the Russo-Ottoman War of 1828/29. Influenced by his stay in Russia from 1840, his subjects became increasingly exotic to contemporary tastes.

After his return, he remained in the Rhineland for several years, during which he sought contact with and patronage from the Prussian king, and from 1852 he went to Argentina. Carsten Roth writes in his entry on Grashof in the general Künstlerlexikon that the real reason for the trip was to sell a number of works in South America. The work of horses in the Lower Rhine landscape presented here was brought to us for auction from a prominent Argentine collection - one may assume that the painting made the long journey together with the artist at that time and is now returning to its place of origin.