Home Online catalogues True to Nature. Open-air Painting 1780-1870 68. Carl Blechen Cottbus 1798 – 1840 Berlin View of the Colosseum in Rome, 1829 Blechen was 30 years old when he undertook the journey to Italy on 6 September 1828. He would return to Berlin 14 months later with many drawings and plein air sketches of a remarkable freedom which greatly influenced his working practice and appreciation of landscape. The freshness and modernity of Blechen’s Italian studies is evident in this view of the Colosseum, and the runny consistency of the paint is rather unusual for the artist and betrays the experimental character of these works. The scene is taken from the Palatine Hill and bathed in a warm early evening light. Looking towards the northeast, we glimpse the Arch of Constantine on the left, and the off-centre positioning of the Colosseum offers a view in the distance towards the purplish Sabine Hills. Blechen left Rome for Naples at the beginning of May 1829, so our sketch was likely painted in the spring of that year.
Blechen was 30 years old when he undertook the journey to Italy on 6 September 1828. He would return to Berlin 14 months later with many drawings and plein air sketches of a remarkable freedom which greatly influenced his working practice and appreciation of landscape. The freshness and modernity of Blechen’s Italian studies is evident in this view of the Colosseum, and the runny consistency of the paint is rather unusual for the artist and betrays the experimental character of these works. The scene is taken from the Palatine Hill and bathed in a warm early evening light. Looking towards the northeast, we glimpse the Arch of Constantine on the left, and the off-centre positioning of the Colosseum offers a view in the distance towards the purplish Sabine Hills. Blechen left Rome for Naples at the beginning of May 1829, so our sketch was likely painted in the spring of that year.