Hermann Fuchsel - The Rocky Mountains

This 19th century American painting, by the eminent Hudson River School artist Hermann Fuechsel, depicts the majestic Rocky Mountains, an epic American Landscape. It was painted near Georgetown in Colorado. 
 
Fuechsel magnificently captured the grandeur and pristine beauty of America’s western wilderness in the present painting. Painted during the Reconstruction era, it can be interpreted as an ode to the beauty of the vast American landscapes and as aspiration to strengthen the national identity after the perils of the civil war. The way the artist painted the sunlight illuminating the slopes and trees, the fog rising through the trees, the reflection of the snow on the far-away mountains and the peaceful gathering of the people around the fire, creates an instant feeling of tranquility. 
 
What makes this work truly special and rare is its quality, size, subject (a magnificent American landscape) and the fact that this was painted in the 19th century, shortly after the end of the civil war. All these elements add to its art historical value and importance. 
 
Hermann Fuechsel was born in August 1833 in Braunschweig, Germany. He trained in Dusseldorf where he joined the artists' association Malkasten and during this time he became acquainted with the painters Albert Bierstadt, Worthington Whittredge and Emanuel Leutze. In 1858 he moved across the Atlantic to New York City, where he became a member of the Artists’ Fund Society and the Hudson River School. He opened a studio on Broadway and began exhibiting at the Boston Athenæum and the American Art Union in 1860. From 1861 to 1900 he exhibited frequently at the National Academy of Design, as well as the Brooklyn Art Association. In 1882 Fuchsel moved his studio to the famous Tenth Street Studio Building, where Albert Bierstadt and Frederic Church also lived and worked, which he kept until his death.
 
In Fuechsel's painterly oeuvre, the main theme are mountain and water landscapes, which he would usually sketch from elevated points of view and later complete in his studio. He painted many important 19th century American landscapes including the Hudson River, the White Mountains, Lake George, the Catskills and Adirondacks. As a lithographer, Fuechsel also reproduced the landscapes of other painters, including those of Albert Bierstadt. He later became one of the most published artists in the United States.
 
His works can be found in many important collections including: the Hudson River Museum, the Walker Art Center, the Wadsworth Atheneum, the New-York Historical Society and the Staten Island Museum.
 
The dimensions of the canvas are ca: 104 on 62 cms.
 
Provenance: Private German Collection