View of the harbour and the Castle Hill

Views of the Oder riverside with the castle hill, the Old Town and the harbour were popular painting motifs in the interwar period, not only among marine painters. There was a great demand at the time for works showing the panorama of the city facing the water and the modern harbour, the current layout of which was documented in oil paintings, prints, and photographs. The skyline of the city seen from afar, obscured by the vessels of the time, such as steamers and barges, was one of the more common shots. The Szczecin artist Eugen Dekkert (1865-1956) used a similar scheme in his work, but replaced cargo boats with old sailing ships, portraying the reloading from a Danish vessel called "Silvia" to a barge anchored in the river current in the foreground. Coming from a Szczecin merchant family, Dekkert took his first drawing lessons from August Ludwig Most at the St. Mary's Foundation Gymnasium. In 1896 he went to Munich, where he continued his artistic education with Theodor Hummel, affiliated with the Munich Secession. Inspired by the work of the Glasgow Boys, a Scottish group combining British Realism and French Impressionism, Dekkert went to study in the Scottish capital. His sublime, mist-soaked and damp landscapes of Scotland and northern England earned him recognition from the artistic milieu and helped launch his international career. He has exhibited work in many European cities, as well as Australia and North America. His artistic travels took him to the Netherlands, Italy and France, and he visited Szczecin almost incessantly, where the City Museum (Stadtmuseum Stettin), frequently exhibited his paintings. He was eager to revisit Szczecin's landscapes, often depicting the harbour with its lively quays, the buildings along the riverside and the areas along the mouth of the Duńczyca in his characteristic silvery-grey colour palette. In recognition of his artistic achievements, Dekkert was given his own painting space by the authorities of the City Museum - an atelier on Haken's Terrace, which offered a view of the part of the city he appreciated so much. Małgorzata Peszko