Lot 832: Stahl, Friedrich1863 Munich - 1940 Rome Regatta in Henley.

Stahl, Friedrich
1863 Munich - 1940 Rome

Regatta in Henley.
Signed and dated lower center: Fried Stahl/ Henley 99. Oil on canvas. 73 x 71,5cm.

In 1878 Friedrich Stahl began his studies at the Munich Academy with Wilhelm Diez, Ludwig von Löfftz and Gyula Benczúr. In 1886 he moved to Berlin, where he lived and worked until 1898. At the turn of the century he went to England and to deal with Pre-Raphaelite painting. In 1904 he went to Florence to continue his studies and in the years following he focused on early Italian Renaissance. In 1914 he returned shortly to Munich, before finally settling in Rome.

This image dates back to his time spent in England. Since 1839 an annual competition has taken place on the Thames namely The Oxford & Cambridge University Boat Race." It is the oldest traditional rowing ragatta in the world and since 1851 protected under the royal partonage.

The painter does not focus so much on race itself, as on the activites occuring around it: a number of well-dressed spectators, drifting in small boats crowded in the wide river.
What Stahl is trying to emphasize on canvas, is the atmosphere of a sunny, eventful Sunday afternoon.