JOHANN CHRISTIAN REINHART
1761 Hof – 1847 Rome
LANDSCAPE WITH THE ABDUCTION OF GANYMEDE
oil on canvas, 89 x 122 cm
signed and dated lower right: “J C Reinhart / Roma 1842”
provenance:
Le Château de la Bôve, Bouconville-Vauclair (Hauts-de-France) until 2024.
Johann Christian Reinhart is one of the most important landscape painters around 1800. Born in 1761 in Hof, he studied at the academies in Leipzig under Adam Friedrich Oeser and in Dresden under Johann Christian Klengel. After having completed his studies, he worked at the court of George I of Sachsen-Meiningen from 1786. He went to Rome in 1789 and remained there until his death in 1847. He was at the center of the German artistic community in Rome and, as a generally admired artist, was visited by many travelers who purchased works from him. His etchings were the easiest to transport; paintings were more representative, but often had to be commissioned in advance.
Reinhart painted different types of landscapes. During his time in Germany, he concentrated on idylls and Arcadian ideal landscapes. In Rome, together with his friend Joseph Anton Koch, he was instrumental in the revival of the heroic ideal landscape in the wake of Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) and Gaspard Dughet (1615-1675). Heroic ideal landscapes are landscapes that can be harsh and hostile, in which people live and have to withstand nature. These are more robust than the more delicate dwellers of the idylls. The present painting from 1842 also belongs to the type of heroic ideal landscape.
Reinhart depicted a landscape through which a river flows and cascades down as a waterfall in the center of the picture. Mighty rocks in the foreground and middle ground determine the heroic character, as are the high mountains on the right of the picture, which Rudolf Marggraff described as “mighty and wild” in 1846.[1] Three idealized towns can be seen in the middle ground, with references to both ancient and medieval architecture. The town on the right, on the crest of a hill, is reminiscent of the towns of the Lazio region, which Reinhart knew from his excursions around Rome from the 1790s.
A wind is blowing through the landscape, as suggested by the leaves on the trees in the foreground, and the billows of smoke near the central town, presumably caused by a large fire that is being fanned by the wind. This event corresponds with the gray, enormous clouds in the sky, which have an inherent threatening potential. Reinhart animated the landscape with three athletic shepherds of different ages with their dog. The goats rest, while the flock of sheep stir up dust as they run. The shepherds and the dog are surprised and probably also frightened by an event in the sky: the king of gods Jupiter, in the guise of a large eagle, abducts the young Ganymede, who is to serve as his cupbearer on Mount Olympus. Ganymede wears a tunic that leaves only his chest uncovered and a red Phrygian cap. The theme of the violent abduction of the young man by the god finds its resonance in a heroic ideal landscape with its rough elements. Although the landscape could stand for itself for the modern viewer, Reinhart was committed to traditional landscape theory, according to which a landscape necessarily required figures. The mythological episode thus gives the heroic ideal landscape its meaning.
Typically, as a classicist, Reinhart chose an ancient mythological theme. Classicism is also reflected in the cool colors from which the red of the Phrygian cap stands out. The painting is an important addition to Reinhart’s oeuvre. Until now the pictorial invention was only known from a drawing made in 1837.[2] It shows the sophisticated composition and was intended for sale as a signed work. The painting that Reinhart composed accordingly, which he exhibited in his studio in 1838 on the occasion of the visit of the Russian heir to the throne in Rome, is now lost.[3] The German press wrote about the painting: “In the studio of the honorable Reinhart, two landscapes with mythological staffages (Ganymede and Prometheus) were particularly striking due to the magnificence of the composition, which is so characteristic of this Old Master.”[4]
Reinhart repeated the praised composition at least twice. Once is the present version from 1842[5] and a version he was working on in 1846, which was unfinished at the time of his death.[6]
Reinhart’s childhood love, Thekla Podleska, who had in the meantime become a well-known singer, had also heard of the painting and would have liked to own a version of it, as she confessed to him in December 1843. Reinhart replied to her on July 30, 1844: “[The painting] was a picture 6 palms wide and 4 palms high, depicted the abduction of Ganymede in an ideal landscape and was ordered by an Englishman [Claudius Tarral] who was in Paris and would have liked to exhibit it at the Paris art exhibition, but it arrived too late.”[7] It is possible that the present painting is the one Reinhart mentions here. In terms of dating, it would be conceivable; it was also in a French château, which could point to the art collector Claudius Tarral (1810-1886), who came from England and practiced as a doctor in Paris.
The composition was rightly admired by his contemporaries. It is complex, precise and delicately colored, and features signature elements of Reinhart’s art (waterfalls, cities, fires). This previously unknown painting belongs to the international classicist movement and fills a gap in Reinhart’s oeuvre. It proves that Reinhart was one of those artists who created an impressive late work.
The text is kindly provided by Reinhart expert Dr. Carlo Schmidt.
[1] Inge Feuchtmayr, Johann Christian Reinhart (1761-1847). Monographie und Werkverzeichnis, Munich 1975, p. 339; „[…] die eine [Landschaft] im Hintergrund von mächtigen wilden Felsen umschlossen mit dem Raub des Ganymed.“ “[…] the one [landscape] in the background surrounded by mighty wild rocks with the abduction of Ganymede.”
[2] Ibid., p. 140. Feuchtmayr mentions here the painting of the same subject that was exhibited in Reinhart’s studio in December 1838 (G 115) and a repetition that Rudolf Marggraff saw there in November 1846 (G 121, probably identical with G 152).
[3] Ibid., G115.
[4] Manfred Pix, Johann Christian Reinhart (1761-1847). Eine Dokumentation in Wort und Bild, Bd. 5, Neustadt an der Aisch 2021, p. 367, D 1426a.
[5] Feuchtmayr was not aware of the existence of the painting dated 1842.
[6] Inge Feuchtmayr, Johann Christian Reinhart (1761-1847). Monographie und Werkverzeichnis, Munich 1975, G121(probably identical with G152).
[7] Manfred Pix, Johann Christian Reinhart (1761-1847). Eine Dokumentation in Wort und Bild, Bd. 5, Neustadt an der Aisch 2021, p. 496, D 1543.