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Drawn in Light
Carl Blechen: The Amalfi Sketchbook

29.01.2010 to 11.04.2010

Alte Nationalgalerie
Alte Nationalgalerie

Carl Blechen’s 'Amalfi Sketchbook’ is one of the outstanding artistic fruits of his Italian journey in 1828 and ranks as one of the most important achievements in the art of drawing in the 19th century. The evaluation of Blechen’s place in art history as the precursor of realistic and impressionistic landscape art is principally based on the sepia drawings contained in this sketchbook which are positively aglow in light and were until recently described as being near abstract in nature. The drawings were created during an eight-day stay in Mühltal and in the mountain region near Amalfi.

In cooperation with the Akademie der Künste Berlin, whose art collection includes the original sketchbook, the Alte Nationalgalerie proudly presents this work containing 66 sheets, now on display for the first time in full. The Amalfi Sketchbook complements and enriches other paintings that form part of the permanent exhibition on display on the third floor of the gallery, including not only those by Carl Blechen himself, but works by Caspar David Friedrich and Karl Friedrich Schinkel, as well as those by Adolph Menzel and the Impressionists.