(b Cottbus, 29 July 1798; d Berlin, 23
July 1840). German painter.
Despite early artistic
inclinations, he trained as a bank clerk and then worked
as one from 1814 to 1822 before studying at the Akademie
der Künste in Berlin. Here Heinrich Anton Dähling
(1773–1850) sharpened his interest in Romantic and
poetic subjects, while Peter Ludwig Lütke (1759–1831)
encouraged his eye for the potential expressiveness of
observed language. Blechen was also strongly influenced
by the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, which he was
able to study in Berlin at this time. In 1823 he
travelled to Dresden, where he visited Johann Christian
Clausen Dahl and probably also met Friedrich, who shared
the same house. Here Dahl impressed Blechen with his
impulsive style of oil sketching. Studies (Berlin, Alte
N.G.) of Meissen, especially of the cathedral, and of
the dramatic landscape of the surrounding parts of
Saxony reveal the early development of Blechen’s
tendency to perceive landscape and architecture,
especially ruins, as allegories of his own usually
rather depressed moods. This passionately subjective use
of imagery distinguishes Blechen from Friedrich, whose
work shows a far more level-headed deployment of
landscape symbols as religious allegory.
Badende im Park von Terni
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