Johann Christian Reinhart

(Hof 1761-1847 Rome)

Ideal landscape

Signed and dated in front center: J.C. Reinhart f. Romae / 1813
Oil on canvas, dimensions: 147 x 212 cm

Johann Christian Reinhart, famous for his landscape etchings, produced relatively few paintings by comparison. From the mid-1790s onwards, Reinhart developed the Arcadian landscape into a heroic, ideal landscape, inspired at all times by the work of Claude Lorrain. This particular painting, a large-format landscape, excels not only by virtue of its monumentality but also as the culmination of a set of works. Its meticulous composition exemplifies all the artisitic techniques of classical landscape painting – the framing effect of groups of trees, the sloping terrain in the centre, the path leading deeper into the scene, the lake, the ancient building on the hill and the wide, low horizon. The landscape is enlivened by a beggar seated on the left, two resting shepherds with their herds on the right, a horse rider in flight and other figures in the centre and background. Colour and light effects are also composed with precision. The well in the right half of the painting bears a Greek inscription χαι̃ρε (“GREETINGS TO THEE”), the remaining wall stones are arranged on the left. This monumental execution is the culmination of all elements in the versions created in 1810 and 1811 and completes the set of works as a highlight of his ideal landscapes.

Reinhart’s landscape compositions are intimately related with each other, and a second or indeed a third version is by no means unusual. “The landscapes, stylised according to the classical rules of aesthetic harmony, are peopled in the foreground with young men in Greek loincloths, and buildings of Antiquity in the middle or background.” Standard elements, such as temple portals and pantheon domes, are recurrent. This set of altogether four paintings radiates a certain joyousness and sublimity. They exemplify the second basic type of landscape painting in his opus, the other being storm landscapes. A drawing dated 1810 formed the starting point of a series that continued with the three different versions of
this ideal  landscape in  medium-sized format  that were painted in 1810 and 1811. In 1813, Reinhart was accepted as a member of the Accademia di San Luca and commissioned to paint two landscapes by King Maximilian I of Bavaria. The latter paintings can no longer be traced, however.

Reinhart was born in the Upper Franconian town of Hof and was a theology student in Leipzig for a time before he started taking painting and drawing lessons from Oeser. According to historical records, he was registered at the Academy in Dresden in 1783, and at the court of Sachsen-Meinigen from 1786 to 1789. By 1789 was is in Rome, where he spent the rest of his life. In 1810 he was accepted as a member of the Academy in Berlin, followed by Munich in 1839 and his appointment to the position of court painter for the Bavarian court.


Drawing and other versions

  • Chalk/ink drawing in the Kunsthalle Hamburg, dated 1810, 42.5 x 56.8 cm (WVZ Z 117)
  • Painting in the State Ermitage, St. Petersburg, dated 1810, 56 x 75 cm (WVZ G 32 f)
  • Painting in private collection, dated 1811, 45.7 x 60.2 cm, (WVZ G 32 g)
  • Paining in the im Museum für bildende Künste, Leipzig, “trace lost as a result of war” (1952), dated 1810, (WVZ G 83)



References

  • Inge Feuchtmayr, Johann Christian Reinhart 1761-1847. Monographie und Werkverzeichnis, Munich 1975, pp. 85, 91 ff, WVZ Z 117, G 32 f, 32 g, G 83
  • Cat. Heroismus und Idylle, Formen der Landschaft um 1800, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum Cologne 1984, pp.118 ff, cat. no. 56.

                       

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