Home Online catalogues True to Nature. Open-air Painting 1780-1870 37. Carl Wilhelm Götzloff Dresden 1799 – 1866 Naples Limestone Rocks, Sorrento, 1858 Götzloff trained at the Academy in his native Dresden between 1814-21, studying under Caspar David Friedrich and Johan Christian Dahl. He travelled to Rome on a scholarship in 1821, and would spend the rest of his life in Italy, undertaking numerous sketching excursions throughout the country. In 1825, he settled in Naples, where he established himself as a successful vedute painter. He shared accommodations with Pitloo and Gigante, founders of the School of Posilippo, which advocated for landscape painting based on the close observation of nature. For this study, Götzloff pulled right up to the weathered outcrop of limestone, revelling in the rich colouration and chalky texture of the volcanic tuff in the golden summer light. Painted with meticulous attention to detail, it is dated 14 Aug 58 along the lower edge. It remained with his family for generations, being passed down to his great grandson who dispersed the estate and, in 1983, bequeathed a group of c. 1500 drawings and oil sketches to the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna in Rome – today the largest holding of Götzloff’s work.
Götzloff trained at the Academy in his native Dresden between 1814-21, studying under Caspar David Friedrich and Johan Christian Dahl. He travelled to Rome on a scholarship in 1821, and would spend the rest of his life in Italy, undertaking numerous sketching excursions throughout the country. In 1825, he settled in Naples, where he established himself as a successful vedute painter. He shared accommodations with Pitloo and Gigante, founders of the School of Posilippo, which advocated for landscape painting based on the close observation of nature. For this study, Götzloff pulled right up to the weathered outcrop of limestone, revelling in the rich colouration and chalky texture of the volcanic tuff in the golden summer light. Painted with meticulous attention to detail, it is dated 14 Aug 58 along the lower edge. It remained with his family for generations, being passed down to his great grandson who dispersed the estate and, in 1983, bequeathed a group of c. 1500 drawings and oil sketches to the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna in Rome – today the largest holding of Götzloff’s work.