The rowers. Study of the frescoes in the Naples Zoological Station

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Rowers. Study of the frescoes in the Naples Zoological Station (also: The Rowers) (Hans von Marées)
Rowers. Study of the frescoes in the Naples Zoological Station (also: The Rowers)
Hans von Marées , 1873
Oil on canvas
136 × 166.5 cm
Old National Gallery , Berlin

The rowers. Study of the frescoes in the Naples Zoological Station (also known under the title The Rowers ) is a painting by the German Roman Hans von Marées from 1873. The realism- related picture is one of five preliminary studies for a fresco , which were partly in oil painting Marées for the Naples Zoological Station . The picture has been part of the collection of the Berlin Old National Gallery since 1907 .

Description and background

Reconstruction of the frescoes in the Alte Nationalgalerie, which shows the context of the picture in the panorama

The picture, unsigned by Marées, has the dimensions 136 × 166.5 cm and is made using the oil painting technique. In 1907, Adolf von Hildebrand left it to the Berlin National Gallery. There are a total of five of these preliminary studies. Sketches for this work are said to have been in the possession of the following people: Engineer Petersen, Engineer Storrer, Gabriele Palumbo, who participated in the construction and design of the station in Naples.

The picture shows four strong men rowing a fishing boat into the open sea. The composition has parallel elements that create a stronger dynamic than a single rower. The color is more monochrome, but has the character of a kind of tricolor due to accents in red, as in the belt of the front rower on the left, blue in the sky and white, in the clouds on the left. Marées was influenced by the French painter Édouard Manet and impressionists such as Claude Monet .

The figures in this picture are the same size as the later fresco in the Naples zoological station, only there they are part of a large, panoramic area and do not appear as dominant as in this picture. For the frescoes of the Stazione Zoologica , a specific image program was planned that he had developed together with his friend, the sculptor Adolf Hildebrand. The artistic motifs were not, as was customary at the time, religion, history, antiquity or allegorical things, but the sea, the exploration of which was the theme of the zoological station. However, it was not his living creatures that were depicted, but his coasts, cities and the local folk life of the inhabitants. There are fishing boats that are pushed into the water and rowed, a pub scene with the scholars and artists of the Stazione Zoologica and a paradisiacal garden with oranges, seated women and gardeners. By renouncing the narrative, the solemn rigor of the representations with their timeless calm and the simple composition, Marées created something ideal in his sense that has nothing to do with the genre painting that was widespread at the time .

Marées received the order for the frescoes from Anton Dohrn , the founder of the Stazione Zoologica . The pictures were intended to decorate the space above the aquarium for gatherings and social gatherings. The artist, who otherwise lives in Italy, was in Germany for three years and met Dohrn in Dresden in 1873, where the details were discussed. It was Marées' only private assignment and it suited him because his relationship with Count Adolf Friedrich von Schack , who supported him financially, had just broken up. But the construction was more expensive than planned, so there was nothing left for an artist's fee. However, thanks to the support of his friend and patron Konrad Fiedler, Marées was able to continue working. The execution of the frescoes took a lot of time because Marées worked slowly because he always had doubts about his work and painted over many things again in search of his ideal. His friend Hildebrand took over the decorative edging as a sculptor, Marées then worked his way forward piece by piece together with the workers who applied the fresh, damp wall plaster. After completing the frescoes, the five preliminary studies remained in Naples. They came into the possession of Adolf Hildebrand, who gave them to the National Gallery as a gift in 1907. Marées stayed in Italy for the rest of his life.

According to the assumption of the art historian Uta Gerlach Laxner, the five pictures could not have been preliminary studies because of their different calculations for the client, but rather were created afterwards.

Exhibitions (selection)

  • December 23, 1908 to February 10, 1909 Hans von Marées in the exhibition of the Munich Secession and then from February 28 to the beginning of April 1909 in the Berlin Secession as well as in the Frankfurter Kunstverein (December 1909 to January 1910) and in the Kölnischer Kunstverein (27. February to March 31, 1910, No. 200).
  • 1924: German painting for the last 50 years in the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen in Munich
  • June to August 1952: A millennium of German art in the Neues Museum and Landesmuseum in Wiesbaden
  • July 23 to October 1955: German art of the 19th century in the Revier in the Museum Folkwang and in the Villa Hügel
  • 1956: A Hundred Years of German Painting at the Tate Gallery in London
  • May 2 to July 5, 1981: German Masters of the Nineteenth Century at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and then from August 1 to October 11, 1981 at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto
  • June 8 to September 14, 2008: Hans von Marées in the Von der Heydt Museum in Wuppertal
  • October 2008 to January 2009: Hans von Marées. Longing for community in the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin

literature

  • Paul Schubring : Hans von Marées frescoes in Naples . In: The art . 17th year, 5th volume. F. Bruckmann, Munich 1902, p. 169–176 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive , Textarchiv - Internet Archive - Fresco in the Zoological Station in Naples [complete picture]).
  • Julius Meier-Graefe : Hans von Marées - On the exhibition of his works in the Munich Secession . In: Die Kunst - monthly magazine for free and applied arts . Volume 24, Volume 19. F. Bruckmann, Munich 1909, p. 249–264 , here pp. 258–260, illustration p. 259 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive , Textarchiv - Internet Archive - Die Ruderer (1873) design for the frescoes in Naples).
  • Julius Meier-Graefe: The Neapler frescoes 1873 . In: Hans von Marées - his life and his work . tape 1 . R. Piper, Munich / Leipzig 1910, section: The division of the walls, p. 243–282 , here p. 151 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive , Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  • Julius Meier-Graefe: main picture the rowers - first draft in the sketchbook (No. 192) . In: Hans von Marées - his life and his work . tape 2 . R. Piper, Munich / Leipzig 1909, p. 172–176 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  • Hans Wille: preliminary drawings for the Naples frescoes in Hans von Marées' sketchbook in Wuppertal . In: Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch . tape 21 , 1959, ISSN  0083-7105 , pp. 227-234 , JSTOR : 24655733 .
  • Hans von Marées sketchbook: facsimile edition of the original . Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal 1987, OCLC 1005868727 (with a contribution on the importance of the Wuppertal sketchbook for the genesis of the Neapler frescoes by Sabine Fehlemann).
  • Lea Ritter Santini, Christiane Groeben: The frescoes of the Stazione Zoologica and the ancient Ekphrasis . In: Arte come autobiografia - Hans von Marées - art as autobiography . Naples 2005, ISBN 88-85823-39-4 , pp. 159–188 , in PDF p. 10–11, colored images p. 19 and 21 , urn : nbn: de: bsz: 16-artdok-23312 ( uni-heidelberg.de , uni-heidelberg.de - Italian: Gli affreschi della Stazione Zoologica e l'antica “ekphrasis” . Translated by Frank Fehrenbach , frescoes of the Stazione Zoologica and the ancient Ekphrasis).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Julius Meier-Graefe: main picture the rowers - first draft in the sketchbook (No. 192) . In: Hans von Marées - his life and his work . tape 2 . R. Piper, Munich / Leipzig 1909, p. 172 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  2. ↑ Dieter Honisch in: Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz (Hrsg.): Art of the world in the Berlin museums. Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Stuttgart / Zurich 1980, ISBN 3-7630-2007-1 , p. 42.
  3. ↑ Rowers. Study of the frescoes in the Naples Zoological Station. Website SMB with a detailed description of the picture and its story by Claude Keisch.
  4. ^ Uta Gerlach-Laxner: Hans von Marées. Catalog of his paintings. Prestel, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-7913-0502-6 , p. 135.
  5. ^ Hermann Nasse: German painting in the last 50 years. In: Art for everyone: painting, sculpture, graphics, architecture. 39th year: (1923–1924), F. Bruckmann, Munich 1924, pp. 382–384 ( uni-heidelberg.de ).
  6. ↑ Johannes Vesper: Hans von Marées - Exhibition in the von der Heydt Museum Wuppertal
  7. ↑ Cult of the Artist: Hans von Marées. Longing for community smb.museum.
  8. ↑ Bernhard Schulz: The contemporary - In search of Arcadia: Hans von Marées' Sehnsuchtsbilder in the Alte Nationalgalerie . In: Der Tagesspiegel . October 2, 2008 ( tagesspiegel.de ).