FRANZ LUDWIG CATEL (1778-1856)

PLEASE NOTE THAT A SEPARATE CATALOGUE FOR THIS ARTWORK IN GERMAN, WRITTEN BY DR ANDREAS STOLZENBURG, IS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
 
 
 
THE MAUSOLEUM OF THE NECROPOLIS OF SAN VITO, WITH FIGURES FROM GOETHE'S DER WANDERER (c.1830-40)
Oil on canvas
81 x 108.5 cm
 
PROVENANCE:
Michel Roux-Spitz (Lyon, 1888-1957, Dinard), Paris;
Private collection, France;
Anonymous sale, Osenat, Fontainebleau, 17.12.2023, lot 244 (as École française, vers. 1830” Promeneurs dans la campagne napolitaine devant le Vesuve)
 
 
 
We are grateful to Dr Andreas Stolzenburg for his generous assistance in cataloguing this newly-discovered painting by one of the great German Romantic painters of the early 19th century, Franz Ludwig Catel. The painting will be included in the catalogue of works by Franz Ludwig Catel currently being prepared by Dr. Stolzenburg, Hamburg. The following is an abridged and translated version of Dr Stolzenburg's cataloguing. 
 
 
This painting, which was previously thought to be the work of an anonymous French painter and is described here for the first time as a work by the Berlin painter Franz Ludwig Catel (1778-1856), is compositionally and iconographically closely related to a larger painting in the Germanisches National Museum in Nuremberg [1] (see fig. I above). Peter-Klaus Schuster described and praised it in detail in 1981 and pointed out the scene staffage, which he rightly associated with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's hymn "The Wanderer" from 1772. The present painting repeats the monumental landscape in a slightly smaller format and shows the staffage of The Wanderer with the woman and the small child in a slightly different, simplified form, but without impairing the readability of the obvious reference to Goethe.
 
However, what is depicted on the left edge of the picture is not an architectural variation of the Venus Temple of Bajae, as Schuster assumes, but rather the remains of a Roman necropolis above the town of Pozzuoli, located between Lago d'Agnano and Monte Sant'Angelo. The still standing ruin shows the Mausoleum of San Vito, which still exists today, which was also captured in an oil study by the Norwegian painter Johann Christian Dahl in c.1820. The wide view extends over the Gulf of Pozzuoli to Capo Miseno and the island of Ischia behind it with the characteristic Monte Epomeo. Further remains of the Roman necropolis can be seen in the hills to the left and right of the path that leads down into the valley; while in the foreground, one sees the collections of Roman entablature fragments or capitals that are so characteristic of Catel's works.
 
 
The artist was not aiming to illustrate Goethe's hymn in a superficial way, but rather to convey the spirit of the poem. The following lines of the hymn reflect what is depicted: the woman asks the Wanderer, 'Welch Gewerb treibt dich / Durch des Tages Hitze / Den staubigen Pfad her? / Bringst du Waaren aus der Stadt / Im Land herum? / Lächelst, Fremdling, / Über meine Frage?“ To which the Wanderer replies, 'Keine Waaren bring` ich aus der Stadt: / Kühl wird mir nun der Abend. Zeige mir den Brunnen, / Draus du trinkest, / Liebes junges Weib.' [2]
 
What is depicted is the lack of understanding on the part of the local woman for the Wanderer’s desire to visit and admire the ancient remains, which for her are merely a poor place to live, as she dwells in their shadow with her child. In the Nuremberg version of the composition, the Wanderer’s admiration for antiquity is expressed somewhat more concretely - through his gaze directed at an architectural fragment and his removed hat - than in the present version, in which he simply has his right arm bent in front of his chest. In both pictures, the woman points to her home with her outstretched hand, where the well is also presumably located.
 
In this painting, Catel once again masterfully succeeds in translating the atmospheric descriptions described in Goethe's hymn, the heat of the day, the beginning of evening and the dusty, steep path into an atmospherically dense picture, which, with its seemingly casual staffage and the reference to Goethe, becomes a wonderful example of romantic landscape painting by a German painter on the Gulf of Naples.