Provenance

Friedrich Augustus II, Elector of Saxony

Augustus II, Friedrich Elector of Saxony
Augustus II, Friedrich King of Poland

Polish, 1696 - 1763

Explore Selected Works

In the distance, a fortress sits on a rocky plateau below a sky filled with lightly rolling white and gray clouds in this horizontal landscape painting. The horizon line is low, about a quarter of the way up the composition, so the plateau and fortress loom high above the surrounding land. The fortress is made up two distinct sections, with a nearly windowless stronghold or massive city wall to the right and what looks like a row of six interconnected white rowhouses to the left. More rooflines peek over the stronghold. Tiny in scale, people work on scaffolding erected against a grassy cliff below the white section. Five men and women and a child and a few cows gather in the foreground, closer to us. People walk through the landscape in the background and along roads leading to the fortress. A hilly landscape recedes deep into the distance to our left below pale peach and lilac-purple clouds.
Bernardo Bellotto, The Fortress of Königstein, 1756-1758, oil on canvas, Patrons' Permanent Fund, 1993.8.1

The Fortress of Königstein

Bernardo Bellotto · 1756-1758 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1993.8.1

Hercules Seghers, Ruins of the Abbey of Rijnsburg: Small Version, c. 1618-1622, etching printed in black on linen (prepared with ground) and hand-colored with blue watercolor, Rosenwald Collection, 1944.5.132

Ruins of the Abbey of Rijnsburg: Small Version

Hercules Seghers · c. 1618-1622 · etching printed in black on linen (prepared with ground) and hand-colored with blue watercolor ·  Accession ID  1944.5.132