(Arensburg in Livland 1841 – 1916 Düsseldorf) Shrimpers on the Beach, signed and dated E. Dücker 1900, oil on canvas, 88 x 135 cm, framed, (Rei)

Eugen Gustav Dücker: After completing his first training in Arensburg, Dücker attended the academy in St. Petersburg from 1858 to 1862. A six year stipend allowed him to study in Germany and Switzerland from 1863, and later in Holland, Belgium, France, and in Italy in 1874. His travels often took him to the Baltic Sea and North Sea. In 1864 he settled in Düsseldorf where he succeeded Oswald Achenbach as professor of the landscape painting class at the academy and exerted a decisive influence on the development of Düsseldorf landscape painting. The north German landscape with the beaches of the Baltic and North Sea, the island of Sylt and the Harz and Oldenburger Heide were favourite scenes in his paintings. His paintings reproduce “undramatic” landscapes and are chiefly characterised by their absence of any form of decorative figure. A far horizon, a calm sea and closely observed stones in the foreground are typical of his coastal and maritime scenes, the main subject of his oeuvre. The paintings are dominated by the impression of calm in nature, captured at various times of day and moods, in which Dücker abstains from the use of dramatic depictions and exaggerated effects. (Lexikon der Düsseldorfer Malerschule, München 1997, Vol. 1, p.293ff.)