Lot 372: Thomas Fearnley Norwegian 1802-1842 , Høystakker, Rydal, Cumbria (Haystacks, Rydal, Cumbria)

inscribed, dated and signed with initial Rydal. 28 Aug. 1837 F. l.l.; signed by the artist on an exhibition label attached to the reverse oil on panel

24 by 40.5cm., 9½ by 15¾in.

Berlin, National Galerie, Deutsche Jahlhundert-Ausstellung , 1906

Hofjægermester Fearnley (the artist's son)
Thence by descent to the artist's great-granddaughter
Bequeathed from the above to the present owner in 1994

PROPERTY OF A BRITISH PRIVATE COLLECTOR
Five Works by Thomas Fearnley 1802-1842
(lots 372-376)

The foremost pupil of Johan Christian Dahl and an acquaintance of Caspar David Friedrich, during his short life Thomas Fearnley established himself as the most distinguished Norwegian landscape painter of his generation. An inveterate traveller, he responded to the huge variety of landscapes that he crossed in his quest to record nature and his changing surroundings.

Born in south east Norway, and educated in Christiania and Copenhagen, Fearnley became Dahl's pupil in Dresden in 1829. During the 1830s he travelled throughout Europe and spent three years in Rome. Between 1836 and 1838 he lived in England during which time he visited the Lake District where he painted lot 372. In 1838 he returned to Dresden to visit Dahl and Friedrich once more. He moved to Amsterdam in 1840 and died in Munich in 1842 from typhoid aged just thirty-nine.