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Painters of Saxon Switzerland
Adrian Zingg
Adrian Zingg, born in St. Gallen in 1734 and died in Leipzig in 1816, came to the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts in 1766 as an engraver and is regarded as one of the “discoverers” of Saxon Switzerland. He drew outdoors in nature – something new at the time – and in the 1780s and 1790s captured the Kuhstall, the Winterberg, Hohnstein and many rocks in fine sepia drawings. Together with his fellow countryman, the portrait painter Anton Graff, he is said to have named the area “Saxon Switzerland”, because both were reminded of their homeland; it was the pastor Wilhelm Leberecht Götzinger who then made the name popular with his books. Zingg’s pupils included Carl August Richter and his son Ludwig Richter.
Ludwig Richter
Ludwig Richter, born in Dresden in 1803 and died there in 1884, was the son of Zingg’s pupil Carl August Richter. Even as a young man he drew views of Saxon Switzerland – in 1820 the “Ottowalder Felsenthor” in the Uttewalder Grund and the Brand viewpoint. After years in Italy he was a drawing teacher in Meissen and then taught at the Dresden Academy until 1877. His “Crossing at the Schreckenstein” of 1837 in the Albertinum is famous – although it actually shows the Elbe in Bohemia. Later he became beloved by ordinary people above all as an illustrator – with around 2,660 woodcuts for books and fairy tales.
Carl Gustav Carus
Carl Gustav Carus, born in Leipzig in 1789 and died in Dresden in 1869, was actually a doctor – a professor of obstetrics and later personal physician to the King of Saxony. In his spare time he painted, learning from Caspar David Friedrich, who was his friend. Around 1818 the two of them hiked to the Kuhstall. His “Nine Letters on Landscape Painting” is an important book of the Romantic era. The university hospital in Dresden is named after him today.
Johan Christian Clausen Dahl
Johan Christian Clausen Dahl, born in Bergen in Norway in 1788, came to Dresden in 1818 and stayed until his death in 1857. He became a close friend of Caspar David Friedrich, and from 1823 the two lived in the same house on the Elbe. From Saxon Switzerland he painted the Uttewalder Grund (1819), a “Gorge in Saxon Switzerland” (1820) and the “Mill in the Liebethaler Grund” (1823) – the Uttewalder Grund and the Liebethaler Grund both lie on the first stage of the Malerweg. In Norway he is regarded as the father of landscape painting.
Bernardo Bellotto
Bernardo Bellotto, born in Venice in 1722, adopted the artist’s name Canaletto from his uncle. From 1747 he was court painter to Augustus III in Dresden. Between 1753 and 1755 he painted Pirna in eleven large views – the market square, the town with the Sonnenstein – and the originals belong to the Dresden State Art Collections; the Canalettohaus on the market square is named after him. From 1756 to 1758 there followed five large paintings of the Festung Königstein. They were paid for but, because of the Seven Years’ War, probably never delivered, and today they hang in London, Washington, Manchester and Knowsley Hall. Bellotto died in Warsaw in 1780.
Johann Alexander Thiele
Johann Alexander Thiele (1685–1752) stands at the very beginning of painting in Saxon Switzerland: as early as the mid-18th century he captured the Elbe valley and its rocks in his pictures. From a rocky outcrop near Thürmsdorf he painted his “Prospect of the Festung Königstein” – with Königstein, the fortress and the bend of the Elbe around the Lilienstein. The spot is called the Johann-Alexander-Thiele-Aussicht (viewpoint) today; it was cleared again in 2015/2016 and lies right next to the Malerweg chapel, on the Malerweg between Thürmsdorf and Weißig.
Christian Gottlob Hammer
Christian Gottlob Hammer (1779–1864) from Dresden was a draughtsman and engraver and from 1829 a professor at the Dresden Academy. His hand-coloured etchings “View from the Bastei” (around 1825) and “The Bastei Bridge” (around 1835) show the Bastei as the first travellers experienced it; they are now kept in the Stadtmuseum Dresden. Goethe visited his workshop in 1810 and collected his prints.
Ernst Ferdinand Oehme
Ernst Ferdinand Oehme (1797–1855) from Dresden studied under J. C. Dahl and in this way came to the art of Caspar David Friedrich. In Italy Ludwig Richter became his lifelong friend. Back in Dresden he painted outdoors with August Heinrich, especially in Saxon Switzerland. In 1846 he became Saxon court painter.
Robert Sterl
Robert Sterl (1867–1932) was an Impressionist and a professor at the Dresden Academy. He painted musicians and conductors, landscapes and, above all, the stonebreakers in the sandstone quarries. From 1919 until his death he lived in his house with a studio in Naundorf near Struppen. Since 1981 it has been the Robert-Sterl-Haus, with original rooms, the studio, a garden and more than 200 works – and it lies right on Stage 8 of the Malerweg.
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