Lot 1526 Dα

Following a sojourn to Italy from 1826 to 1836 in which he visited Rome, Sicily, and Naples and his first tries at painting, Eugen von Guérard studied under Johann Wilhelm Schirmer at the Düsseldorf Academy from 1838 to 1845. He emigrated to Italy in 1852 and settled in Melbourne, where he encouraged the founding of the "School for Instruction in Drawing and Design" in 1856. In 1870 he became curator of the National Gallery of Victoria and head of its art school, where he introduced the teaching methods he had learnt in the Düsseldorf School, before returning to Düsseldorf in 1881.
During his studies in Düsseldorf Eugen von Guérard primarily painted landscapes from his surroundings as well as motifs based on the sketches he made in Italy, for which the present work is an example. However, he is most well-known for his realistic depictions of the untouched landscapes and settler towns of Victoria in Australia, which remain important documents of the early Colonial era to this day. Eugen von Guérard is considered the first “Australian” painter.