Heinrich Bürkel
(1802 Pirmasens - Munich 1869)

Cattle Watering at a Fountain on the Via Appia Antiqua, the Ruins of an Aqueduct in the Background
c. 1837

Oil on paper laid down on wood
28.2 x 34.8 cm

Remains of a hand-written label on the verso Das Bild ‘Tränke in der ... von der Hand und aus ... Malers ... Heinrich ...' (remainder undecipherable)
Annotated on the verso Erbe and Bürkel Florenz

Provenance:
Regierungsbaumeister Sachs
Auction Sale, Munich, Hugo Helbing, 26 May 1914
Professor Hans Best, Munich
Thence by descent

Literature:
Hans-Peter Bühler and A. Krückl, Heinrich Bürkel. Mit Werkverzeichnis der Gemälde, Munich 1989, no. 497
Luigi von Buerkel, Heinrich Bürkel, Munich 1940, p. 135, no. 202

Heinrich Bürkel painted a number of versions of this subject. The present painting is the earliest of these versions.[1] It was very probably executed in Rome. Although highly worked-up, the painting has the spontaneity of an oil sketch. The fact that it was executed on paper would seem to indicate that it was largely painted sur le motif. The handling of light and the depiction of the dust haze encircling the cattle are masterly. Bürkel's work yields nothing to the work of outstanding German and Scandinavian artists of the period working in Rome such as Friedrich Nerly, Johann Wilhelm Schirmer, August Lucas and Martinus Rørbye.

While the foreground of the present painting reflects Burkel's predilection for genre, the background reveals his skill as a landscapist. The precise rendering of topographical detail and confident treatment of the bright southern light of a summer's day in the Roman Campagna are impressively conveyed.

Born in Pirmasens, Germany, in 1802, Bürkel moved to Munich in 1822. Distancing himself from academic principles, he educated himself by copying Dutch Old Masters in the Royal Collection. In 1825 he joined the newly-established Münchner Kunstverein set up as a counterweight to the Academy. He travelled widely in Upper Bavaria and the Tyrol, visiting Italy in 1827. After a stay in the Dolomites and sojourns in northern and southern Italy, he spent two years in Rome. Contacts with the large community of German artists in Rome proved a formative influence on his artistic development. Returning to Munich in 1832, he married the daughter of a senior Bavarian government official. He made two further journeys to Italy - in 1835-8 and in 1853-4.

An honorary member of the academies in Vienna, Dresden and later Munich, he achieved international recognition, his paintings fetching high prices both in Europe and North America. He was a close friend of Adalbert Stifter and Carl Spitzweg. He died in Munich in 1869 after a long illness.

[1] Other versions in Bühler/Krückl, Heinrich Bürkel, op. cit.