CURT VICTOR CLEMENS GROLIG
(Meißen 1805-1862 Versailles)
View on River Elbe in Saxony, 1834
Oil on paper, laid down on panel, 16 x 40 cm
Signed and dated, incised in the wet paint, at the lower left: rölig/1834ProvenancePrivate collection, France
SOLD
The present painting shows River Elbe flowing through Saxony’s hilly surroundings. In the distance, on top of the hill to the left, a large building is discernable. This is most probably Sonnenstein Castle at Pirna. It was built on the site of a medieval castle. The building has served as a mental home and rehabilitation centre since 1811. This eye-catching building is one of Saxony’s architectural landmarks.
Besides the topographical references, the applied painting technique also suggestsDresden, the centre of German Romantic landscape painting during the first half of the nineteenth century, as the work’s place of origin. Curt Grolig, born in Meißen, profited from the flourishing cultural climate of his region at the time. From 1827-33 he studied at the Dresden Royal Academy of Fine Arts where he was taught by Norwegian landscape painter Johan Christian Dahl (…). The Norwegian master stimulated his students to break with the tradition to study natural features only from old master paintings and encouraged them to study nature working en plein air instead. It was Dahl’s aim to paint nature with a greater sense of naturalism in order to render the immediacy of a scene observed from life. Working out of doors requires a faster painting technique than working in the studio.
Dahl developed and mastered a typical rapid painting technique. His swift and partly free application of brushstrokes was taken on by his pupils. Grolig’s present, quickly executed oil-sketch from 1834 is a beautiful example.Dahl considered Grolig his Lieblingsschüler or his favorite pupil. Dahl painted River Elbe many times himself (fig. 1). He rented a flat am Elbberge 33 on the Elbe’s riverbanks from 1824. Here he shared his roof with the great romantic master Casper David Friedrich.
fig. 1, Johan Christian Dahl, The Elbe in the evening, 22 August 1845, oil on paper 15.5 x 11.5 cm, The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design Oslo.
Nowadays Grolig is not so well-known anymore. Perhaps due to his Wanderlust he disappeared more easily from the radar than some of his contemporary colleagues. It is natural to assume that Dahl had an important influence on Grolig’s decision to travelled to Denmark and Norway in 1834-36. His work was exhibited at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen in 1836 and 1839. The painter worked in Munich in 1838. King Friedrich August II von Sachsen rewarded him with financial support that enabled him to travel to and work in Algeria in 1839 and 1842. Most likely he met French people there who convinced him to visit their home country. By 1844 he lived in Paris and a year later moved to Versailles where he worked together with Horace Vernet. He died in there in 1862.
It would be interesting to get a better understanding of Grolig’s complete oeuvre. He is now best- known for his works produced in France and Algeria. His estate remained in France after his death. Until recently, most of his production – like this painting – was still in France. The quality of the present picture shows that his Dresden work produced among the leading German Romantic painters is worth to be studied further.