Paintings of the Grindelwald Glacier, and various Norwegian landscapes, he died of typhoid when he was only 39.
Fearnley
A Norwegian landscape painter who trained with JC Dahl in Dresden, and who shared themes with the German Romantic painters.
A polymath who was professor of obstetrics, he became Friedrich’s pupil in 1814. They shared locations and the use of Rückenfiguren.
Records of the Lower Grindelwald Glacier over 250 years, and paintings of those in the Alps, Greenland and Iceland. Catch them while you can, as they’re vanishing fast.
How the Rückenfigur passed from Friedrich via JC Dahl to Thomas Fearnley, then was reborn with Gustave Caillebotte.
The Grand Tour traditionally took young gentry through the Alps, where they could buy paintings of its sublime peaks.
Staffage – people, animals, birds, carts and ships – make a big difference to many landscape paintings. Have you met the Wanderer too?
Who’d want to paint much of their canvas dull, pale grey? If these paintings are anything to go by, many of the Impressionists
The figure appears in later landscapes, including one by Martín Rico, and a pastel by Millet, before being radically revised by Ferdinand Hodler.
The wanderer with his back to the viewer takes on new life with Thomas Fearnley. Is he the artist’s alter ego?
The Eclectic Light Company 