Friedrich Nerly
(Erfurt 1807 - 1878 Venice)
St. Mark's Column in Venice, by Moonlight
c. 1845/60
Oil on card
Signed lower left F. Nerlÿ
On the verso a label inscribed Von Hand von / C. F. Nerlÿ im Pallast / Pisani , zum Bilde für die / Markussäule
50.7 x 43.3 cm
SOLD
In the present painting Friedrich Nerly has chosen as his focus St. Mark's Column. He places it at the centre of the image to the exclusion of its architectural setting. This concentrated focus contrasts with the approach he took when he painted A View of the Piazzetta San Marco (1838). This work was so well received that he painted several versions of it.[1] Characteristic of Nerly's night pieces is his masterly handling of light and shadow. He responds with a subtle sensitivity to the gleam of moonlight through cloud and on the surface of water. The viewer's eye is led upwards to the silhouette of the winged lion of St. Mark that surmounts the Column, its dark form obscuring the rising moon. The figure of the lion is set against an aureole of moonlight framed by banks of dark cloud in the night sky. A silvery shimmer brightens the waters of the lagoon beside the Molo, the quay which serves as a landing stage and embarcation point for the Piazzetta. Figures enliven the Piazzetta - a nightwatchman, his lantern glowing red, makes his rounds, a couple are strolling on the Molo, figures are resting on the steps at the base of the Column, and a gondolier poles away from the Molo. Sailing ships are at anchor in the Bacino di San Marco. Nerly's attention to detail in the depiction of the paving with its bands of light-coloured stone and accentuation of the masts and booms enhances the perspectival effect.
Two other versions of St. Mark's Column in Venice, by Moonlight are recorded. They were executed between 1842 and 1860.[2] It was not Nerly's practice simply to paint a replica of an existing composition. Each version was a variant of his original idea. In terms of style, dating and mood the present painting shows particular affinities to the version titled The Piazzetta by Moonlight now held at the Kunsthalle Bremen.
Friedrich Nehrlich - he later changed his name to Nerly - was born in Erfurt in 1807. On the early death of his father in 1815, he was raised by relatives in Hamburg. His first drawing instructor was an uncle, Heinrich Heterich, who had also taught the young Philip Otto Runge. Heterich was close to the family of Johann Michael Speckter, whose house was a centre of intellectual and artistic liberalism in Hamburg. It was there that Nerly met the famous writer, scholar, art collector and draughtsman Carl Friedrich Baron von Rumohr. Rumohr played an important role as a promoter, patron and instructor of talented young artists such as the Riepenhausen brothers and Franz Horny. Rumohr decided to assume responsibility for Nerly's education to prevent his talent for observing nature from being vitiated by the academic traditions of the time.[3]
In 1835 Nerly moved to Venice, where he spent the rest of his life. He married a local woman. He produced a whole series of views stimulated by the architectural magnificence of the city's palaces, churches, bridges and squares. These views were extremely popular with fashionable tourists. J. M. W. Turner, who worked in Venice from 1819 to 1821, strongly influenced Nerly's work. Nerly's earlier realism rapidly gave way to a more romantic approach. He filled his views with the dramatic light effects characteristic of dawn and dusk.[4]
[1] See Franz Meyer, Friedrich von Nerly, Eine biographisch-kunsthistorische Studie, Erfurt 1908, p.63.
[2] - St. Mark's Column in Venice, by Moonlight, c.1842, oil on canvas, 58.5 x 46.5 cm, signed lower right F. Nerly, Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum - Hannover Landesgalerie, inv. no. PNM 971.
- The Piazzetta by Moonlight, after 1855, oil on canvas, 61 x 48 cm, signed lower left F. Nerly, Kunsthalle Bremen - Kunstverein Bremen, inv. no. 1068-1972/16.
- Venice. St. Mark's Column by Moonlight, c.1855-60, black chalk, brush and black ink, bodycolour on dark blue paper, 74 x 53.5 cm, signed lower left Nerly and lower right Nerly, Angermuseum, Erfurt, inv. no. 4239.
[3] Franz Meyer, Friedrich von Nerly, Eine biographisch-kunsthistorische Studie, Erfurt, 1908; Friedrich Nerly, Ein deutscher Romantiker in Italien 1807-1878, exhib. cat., Kunsthalle Bremen, 1957, pp.4-16.
[4] See Mechthild Lucke, in Wolfram Morath-Vogel (ed.), Friedrich Nerly zum 200. Geburtstag. Römische Tage - Venezianische Nächte, exhib. cat., Dessau, Anhaltische Gemäldegalerie; Lübeck, Museum Behnhaus / Drägerhaus; Paderborn, Städtische Galerie in der Reithalle, Erfurt 2007, p.12, note 24.