Lot 70: Anton Goering (1836-1905)

A Venezuelan river landscape with scarlet ibis sheltering from a gale in a backwater
watercolour on paper
unframed
11 x 15 1/4 in. (27.8 x 38.7cm.)

Goering accompanied Herman Burmeister, a naturalist and director of the Halle Zoological Museum, on his first expedition to South America in 1856, visiting Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina. He returned to Germany in 1858 and later studied under the London animal painter Joseph Wolf. He was commissioned by the British Museum to pursue his ornithological studies in South America and travelled to Venezuela in 1866 where he remained for eight years, exploring little-known parts of the country in the footsteps of Humboldt.

'Er lernte in diesen Jahren Bereiche der Küstenkordillere und des Hochgebirges kennen. Seine Reiseroute stimmt über weite Strecken mit der von Humboldt und Bellermann überein. Ausser Vogelkunde betrieb er botanische und geographische Studien. Goering leistete einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Erforschung Venezuelas; u. a. entdeckte er bis dahin unbekannte Höhlen bei Caripe.' (R. Löschner, Deutsche Künstler in Lateinamerika, Berlin, 1978, p.96)

On his return to Germany in 1874 he worked up watercolours and drawings from his field sketches to illustrate the account of his Venezuelan travels (Vom tropischen Tieflande zum ewigen Schnee. Eine malerische Schilderung des schönsten tropenlandes Venezuela) published in Leipzig in 1890.

For similar subjects by Goering see Christie's 6 June, 1996, lot 3 ('On the south shore of Lake Maracaibo'), £13,225 and 20 May 1997 lot 25 [Flamingos in a Lake, Venezuela], £17,250, and for an illustrated catalogue of Goering's Venezuelan watercolours in Venezuelan collections, see Prof. W. Dupouy, Venezuela a century ago. Paintings by Anton Goering 1836-1905, Caracas, 1969.

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