Description
Influenced by the landscapes of Claude Lorrain and seventeenth-century Dutch artists, the German Jakob Philipp Hackert was one of the most successful landscape artists based in late 18th-century Rome. His precise renderings of beautiful and historic sites attracted an international clientele on the European grand tour. This finished drawing depicts one of Italy's most spectacular natural phenomena, the Marmore waterfall at Terni, located north of Rome. Hackert carefully crafted the composition so that the detailed cliffs covered with foliage frame the tiered cascade from its soaring heights to its final emptying in the foreground. Hackert was known for traveling to the countryside on foot with large portfolios so that he could execute complete wash drawings like this one directly in nature. He probably drew this scene during one such sketching tour in 1776, or 1778.
Provenance
Galerie Gerda Bassenge (Auktionskatalog Nr. 11), Berlin, 23-27 April 1968, Nr. 581 (1968); with Lucien Goldschmidt, New York (?-?); with Sven H.A. Bruntjen, Woodside, CA (?-1982); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1982-)
Accession Number
1982.40
Medium
pen and black ink, brush and brown wash, with white gouache and graphite
Dimensions
Sheet: 52.2 x 39.9 cm (20 9/16 x 15 11/16 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Credit Line
Dudley P. Allen Fund
Tags
Drawing Neoclassical & Romantic (1751–1850) Ink Graphite & Pencil Gouache German
Background & Context
Background Story
Philipp Hackert (1737-1807) was a German painter who worked in Italy, known for the precisely observed, atmospheric landscape paintings of Italian views that make him one of the most accomplished landscape painters of the 18th century. The Waterfall of Marmore at Terni from 1776-78 depicts the famous waterfall of Marmore near Terni—one of the most spectacular waterfalls in Italy and a favorite subject of landscape painters from the 17th century onward—in the precisely observed, atmospheric manner that distinguishes Hackert's best work. Hackert was the court painter to King Ferdinand IV of Naples and produced precisely observed, atmospheric views of Italian landscapes that were among the most accomplished works in the tradition of Italian veduta painting.
Cultural Impact
The Waterfall of Marmore at Terni is important in the history of landscape painting because it demonstrates the precisely observed, atmospheric manner that Hackert brought to Italian views as court painter to King Ferdinand IV of Naples and one of the most accomplished landscape painters of the 18th century. The Marmore waterfall—one of the most spectacular waterfalls in Italy and a favorite subject of landscape painters—was one of the most important subjects in Italian veduta painting, and the 1776-78 painting shows this subject at its most precisely observed and atmospheric.
Why It Matters
The Waterfall of Marmore at Terni is Hackert's precisely observed Italian landscape: the famous Marmore waterfall rendered in the atmospheric manner of one of the most accomplished landscape painters of the 18th century. The 1776-78 painting shows the precisely observed, atmospheric views of Italian landscapes that made Hackert the court painter to King Ferdinand IV of Naples.
