Unusual paintings to add novelty to a collection, with maritimes, river views, cloudscapes, Amsterdam burning, and a couple of distinctive ‘negatives’.
nocturne
From the south-west coast of Norway, he studied under JC Dahl in Dresden between 1836-39, and specialised in dramatic nocturnes.
From the Dutch Golden Age onwards, they’ve become fashionable for a while. Examples from Whistler, Turner, Kuindzhi, van Gogh, and others.
Inspired by the coastal nocturnes of Claude-Joseph Vernet, Friedrich, Carus and JC Dahl painted them often. Includes a remarkable oil sketch.
Ariadne’s Corona Borealis, a difficult reading from Tintoretto, celestial spheres, constellations of summer, and signs of the zodiac.
Ursa Major, often the only constellation people know today, the Milky Way, the Pleiades, and Sagittarius.
Technically very challenging, most are painted in the studio, but some are quite unreal, and others suffer from the moon illusion.
He travelled further afield in the 1880s, focussing on his nocturnes and paintings of twilight, which retain their fine detail.
A painter of nocturnes greater than Whistler, he developed a great love for night scenes, and was commercially successful.
Street scenes, wet roads, at night, café interiors, and busy railway stations in the dark – some of his best paintings.
The Eclectic Light Company 