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Clearing Up--Coast of Sicily
(18th and 19th Centuries )
Beginning in the 1820s, the academy in Düsseldorf, a town on the Rhine River, began to attract artists from other German cities and from abroad. Achenbach, one of Düsseldorf's most influential painters in the mid-19th century, specialized in the "sublime" mode of landscape painting, in which man is dwarfed by nature's might and fury.
At the left the evening sunlight breaks through the stormy sky to illuminate the turbulent sea breaking against the rocky coast. Seagulls struggle to fly in the violent wind. The only signs of human presence are a spar embedded in the rocks, a wooden keg adrift at the right, and a barely discernible flag. The tattered American flag on the rocks in the foreground implies that there is a shipwreck just out of view.
Inscription
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.
The Düsseldorf Gallery, New York [John Godfrey Boker, proprietor], 1849-1857; Cosmopolitan Art Association of Sandusky, Ohio, 1857-1862 [mode of acquisition unknown]; John Wolfe [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; John Wolfe Sale, New York, 1882, no. 91; William T. Walters, Baltimore, 1882, by purchase; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1894, by inheritance; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
Exhibitions
| 2014-2016 | From Rye to Raphael: The Walters Story. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. |
| 2000-2001 | Art and the Empire City: New York, 1825-1861. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. |
| 1984 | Savings Bank of Baltimore Special Display. The Savings Bank of Baltimore, Baltimore. |
| 1983 | German 19th Century Paintings and Drawings. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. |
Conservation
| Date | Description | Narrative |
|---|---|---|
| 8/10/1972 | Treatment | varnish removed; surface cleaned; lined; inpainted; coated |
| 3/16/1978 | Treatment | cleaned |
| 9/8/1983 | Examination | examined for consdition |
| 7/31/1992 | Treatment | other |
| 2/2/1994 | Treatment | other |
| 4/18/1994 | Treatment | other |
| 5/8/1995 | Loan Consideration | examined for loan |
| 5/9/1995 | Treatment | other |
| 5/8/1996 | Treatment | other |
| 1/10/1998 | Loan Consideration | examined for loan |
| 10/2/1998 | Treatment | other |
Measurements
H: 32 1/2 x W: 45 11/16 in. (82.5 x 116.1 cm); Framed H: 48 1/4 x W: 65 x D: 5 3/4 in. (122.6 x 165.1 x 14.6 cm)
Credit Line
Acquired by William T. Walters, 1882
Location in Museum
Not on view
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
37.116