(Havelberg 1839-1882 Paris)
An Idealised Landscape with a Doric Temple in the Evening Light, signed (scratched) Ch. Wilberg, oil on canvas laid down on board, 18.5 x 30 cm, framed, (KN)

Counterpart to lot 34

The most successful subjects of the Berlin painter Christian Wilberg were his idealised, classical landscapes and Italian architectural paintings. After training with Eduard Pape in Berlin, he found his initial inspiration on a two-year trip to Italy. In 1879 he accompanied the Berlin archaeologist Alexander Conze, director of the Collection of Classical Antiquities, on an extended excursion to Pergamon - Conze’s main field of research. He produced more than one hundred sketches there, detailed studies of the archaeological remains as well as ideal reconstruction drawings of the ancient temple complexes. These studies hugely expanded his body of work. Back in Berlin, he executed large-format murals of antique ideal landscapes in the Café Bauer unter den Linden, the famous Grand Café and artists’ meeting place of the Wilhelminian period. These images were highly regarded by his contemporaries and further commissions followed for murals in new private mansions (Palais Pringsheim, Palais Thiele-Winkler) on the prestigious Wilhelmstraße, the political heart of Berlin.
The two oil sketches shown here (lots 33 and 34) could be bozzetti for similar murals, with their fast and fluid brushwork and harmonious atmosphere. (KN)