Blechen, Karl

Blechen, Karl

 

Born July 29, 1798, in Cottbus, Brandenburg. Died July 23, 1840, in Berlin. German painter.

Beginning in 1822, Blechen studied at the Berlin Academy of Art. He traveled in Italy (1828–29) and France (1835). He painted landscapes in a free, broad manner. His early works were imbued with the romantic style (The Park of the Villa d’Este, c. 1830, NationalGallery, Berlin). Blechen’s increasing interest in simple, everyday life and light, airy surroundings made him one of the founders of the realistic German plein air style of landscape painting (The Steel-Rolling Mill Near Neustadt-Eberswalde, 1834).

REFERENCES

[Rave, P. O.] Karl Blechen. Berlin, 1940.