Karl Blechen

Carl Blechen painted light, above all the hard, bright light of southern Italy. His landscapes move from moody Romantic scenes of gorges and monks in snowy passes to startlingly fresh views of sunlit walls, beaches and parks, loosely brushed and close to observation.

Born in Cottbus in 1798, he worked in banking before studying at the Berlin Academy from 1822. He painted stage scenery for a theatre on Alexanderplatz, and a journey to Italy in 1828 and 1829 changed his whole way of painting. On Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s recommendation he became professor of landscape painting at the Berlin Academy in 1831. Building the Devil’s Bridge, showing workmen rebuilding a bridge in a Swiss gorge, and The Interior of the Palm House on the Pfaueninsel are among his best-known works. Illness ended his career in the late 1830s, and he died in Berlin in 1840.

In Bathers in Terni Park, see how quickly the sunlight is set down.