Landscape

Johann Heinrich Steinike, a well-known and valued landscape painter from the second half of the 19th century, became primarily known as the author of picturesque mountain landscapes. Initially, the artist studied at the technical university in Hannover. He travelled extensively across Europe. He visited the Netherlands, Bavaria, Switzerland, northern Italy and Norway where he drew inspiration for his later works. In 1852, he settled in Düsseldorf. He attended the local academy, which became known on account of the talented landscape painters, who were capable of combining in-depth studies of nature with a Romantic feel. The large-format landscape of 1858, in cool atmospheric colours, shows the idealised landscape at the foothills of the Alps, with a view onto a lake. The mountainous view is presented in a mode characteristic for the artist: from a distant point, slightly elevated above the horizon. A significant portion of the painting is taken up by a high bank of the lake, thickly overgrown, with a small meadow where some animals are grazing. The shepherd sitting at the bank seems to be contemplating nature; she is probably looking at the lake surrounded by the steep mountains on the right-hand side of the composition. The inspiration for this piece were picturesque surroundings of Lake Chiemsee in southern Bavaria which was one of the artist’s favourite motives in the 1850s. The multi-layered composition, enlivened by the idyllic staffage and enclosed in the background with a massif of high mountains, displays the tendencies of landscape painting typical for the Düsseldorf School at the beginning of the 2nd half of the 19th century. Steinike's painting derives from a collection of paintings created with a thought about the future Szczecin museum. In 1880, it was recorded in the register of municipal collections as Landschaft aus dem bayrischen Hochgebirge.

Dariusz Kacprzak