Stralsund harbour

Antonie Biel embarked on her artistic education in the second half of the 1850s in the Berlin atelier of Wilhelm Schirmer and continued her studies in the Düsseldorf Academy with Karl Friedrich Lessing and in the studio of Hans Gude at the Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe. After the studies, Biel settled in Berlin and starting from 1862 regularly participated in the exhibition of the Royal Prussian Academy of the Arts in Berlin and the Berlin Association of Fine Arts. She was interested in the landscapes of Harz and Spreewald as well as the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. At the seaside, the artist searched for interesting light; she managed to capture the Romantic elusiveness of changes in nature and the melancholic and menacing ambiance. In 1881, the Royal National Gallery in Berlin, preparing a monographic exhibition of the artist's works, purchased and presented the painting “Steamer In the Quay.” In March 1937, the work was loaned for an exhibition to the Museum of Kołobrzeg. During WWII, it was hidden in a Kołobrzeg warehouse; from there, it reached the collections of the Municipal Museum in Szczecin in 1945 and is currently a part of the collection of the National Museum in Szczecin.The painting presents the quay of the Stralsund harbour with a moored sail and steam vessel, with a small steamer next to it. On the left hand-side, a bow of another ship is visible and masts of two other sail ships. A crane, used to transport load from the quay to the ship, is standing on the right. The background is filled with harbour warehouse buildings made of brick; the left side of the painting features a fragment of a street ending with the quay with dense urban development. Sharp sun rays falling at some buildings and fragments of ships, contrasting with elements hidden in the shadows, reinforce the spatial relations of the composition. Using light and colour spots ˗ house façades in yellowish colour, red and brown walls of warehouses and red, black and white elements of the ships ˗ Antonie Biel built the atmosphere of the harbour view.

Dariusz Kacprzak