Lot 45

Maximilian Joseph Haushofer (1811 - 1866) MONASTERY ON AN ALPINE LAKE

From the expert opinion of PhDr. Naděžda Blažíčková-Horová: "The presented view of a monastery on an Alpine lake is undoubtedly a work of very high quality by the Munich landscape painter Max Haushofer. The composition, color palette, and painterly style of the painting are characteristic of his work. Haushofer arrived in Prague from Munich in late 1844 to take over the Academy’s landscape painting school and to introduce the main principles and trends of contemporary German landscape painting into Czech art, above all his renowned sensitivity and passion for nature, which he cited as his primary inspiration. Haushofer worked in Prague for a full twenty-two years, and his landscape painting school quickly became a household name. High-mountainous hilly regions, monasteries, castles, and solitary mountain huts impressively set on their slopes, sprawling lakes, expansive valleys, and winding paths along the shores of lakes and rivers—these
were the most popular subjects of Haushofer’s canvases. Thematically, he limited himself to his native region, the Bavarian Highlands with their southern mountain ranges, the local lakes, and especially Lake Chiemsee with its two islands, which he continued to paint until the end of his life. The presented work by Haushofer, Monastery on an Alpine Lake, is a beautiful piece likely created toward the very end of the artist’s life, when he was transitioning from his usual large formats to more intimate works. The subject suggests placing it on one of his favorite islands on Lake Chiemsee." Craquelure of surface.