Lot 133: Carl Philipp Fohr (Heidelberg 1795-1818 Rome)

View of Weinheim on the River Necker
inscribed 'Weinheim.' and numbered '27.'
black chalk, pen and brown ink, watercolor, in an inscribed border
10 3/4 x 10 7/8 in. (198 x 276 mm.)

Heidelberg, Kurpfälzisches Museum, Carl Fohr 1795-1818 und die Maler um ihn, 1925, Sketchbook 1, no. 27.
Munich, Ludwigsgalerie, Carl Ph. Fohr, 1927, no. 27.
Chemnitz, Kunsthütte, Deutsche Zeichenkunst 1750-1850, 1930, no. 60.
Breslau, Kunstmuseum, Deutsche Landschaften 1750-1850, 1933, no. 31.
Frankfurt, Städelischen Kunstinstitut, Deutsche Zeichenkunst im 19. Jahrhundert, 1934, no. 40.
Rostock, Deutsche Romantik, 1936, no. 43.
Wiesbaden, 1937, no. 56.
Mannheim, Mannheimer Schloss, Jübilaismus Austellung, 1958.
Heidelberg, Kurpfälzisches Museum, Carl Fohr 1795-1818. Skizzenbuch der Neckergegend, Badisches Skizzenbuch,, 1968.

P. Dieffenbach, Das Leben des Malers Karl Fohr, zunächst für dessen Freunde und Bekannte geschrieben, Darmstadt, 1823 (reprinted Frankfurt, 1918), p. 31.
P.F. Schmidt, 'K.Ph. Fohr', in Monatszeitschrift für Kunstwissenschaft., XI, Leipzig, 1918, p. 313.
K. von Hardenberg and H. Schilling, Karl Philipp Fohr, Leben und Werk eines deutschen Malers der Romantik, Freiberg, 1925, pp. 17 and 38.
'Der Stadtmauer-Durchbruch', Weinheimer Nachrichten, 7 May 1980.
P. Märker, Carl Philipp Fohr, exhib. cat., Hessischen Landesmuseum, Darmstadt, 1997, under nos. 90-1.

Hereditary Grand-Duchess Wilhelmine of Hesse.
Prince Henry of Hesse.
C. Heumann (L. 555b and L. 2841a); Ketterer, Stuttgart, 29 November 1957, lot 68, pl. 5.

Johann Christian Haldenwang in 1814 (G. Kircher, Vedute und Ideallandschaft in Baden und der Schweiz 1750-1850, Heidelberg, 1928, p. 29).

Fohr's natural talent as a draughtsman developed early, and following a brief training with the university drawing master in his native Heidelberg he was 'discovered' by the landscapist G.W. Issel and taken to Darmstadt. Still only sixteen, Fohr was introduced to Philipp Dieffenbach, tutor to the princes at the Hessian court, who became his mentor. Dieffenbach also presented him to his future patron the Hereditary Grand-Duchess Wilhelmina. Fohr spent the summer of 1813 making studies from life in the Neckar region, which he then worked up into highly finished watercolours through the winter. The resulting thirty views, of which this view of Weinheim 14 miles north of Heidelberg is one, were bound into an album which he presented to Wilhelmina. A preparatory study for the present composition is in the Hessisches Landesmuseum in Darmstadt (Carl Philipp Fohr: Romatink-Landschaft und Historie, exhib. cat., Darmstadt, 1995, no. 91). That version shows the Weinheim tower from a lower perspective, further to the left, and lacks the travellers, wagon and dark edge of the city wall seen in the foreground of the final composition. This watercolor was engraved by Johan Christian Haldenwang in 1814 for the Grand Duchess's Court Calendar.
The Skizzenbuch der Neckargegend (Neckar Album), together with the Badischen Skizzenbuch presented in the following year, were the masterpieces of Fohr's career as a landscapist. A page from the latter sketchbook is in the Winterstein Collection (H. Sieveking, Fuseli to Menzel, Drawings and watercolors in the Age of Menzel, 1998, no. 46). Still only twenty, Fohr studied briefly at the Munich Academy before travelling to Italy. His reputation growing fast, his career was dramatically cut short when he drowned while bathing in the Tiber in June 1818.
In common with the other drawings from the Neckar Sketchbook, this drawing carries a printed label on the verso signed by Dr Weigmann, Director of the Graphische Sammlung, Munich, dated 1 February 1927, confirming that it is indeed from the album.