Perlberg – Mother and Daughter in Front of the Temple of Neptune in Paestum

Friedrich Perlberg (1848 Nuremberg – 1921 Munich)

MOTHER AND DAUGHTER IN FRONT OF THE TEMPLE OF NEPTUNE IN PAESTUM

Watercolor on paper, 44.2 x 67.1

Signed lower right: F. Perlberg and labeled lower left: Neptune's Temple in Paestum

The precise depiction of the Temple of Poseidon in Paestum shows that Friedrich Perlberg was not only a skilled landscape painter but also an excellent architectural painter. He added charm and local color to the watercolor through the staffage figures, mother and daughter in Campanian attire. Furthermore, the size comparison between human and architecture allowed him to represent the dimensions and grandeur of the temple ruin.

Perlberg was among the traveling painters who toured the world in search of exciting motifs. With the constantly expanding trade routes to the colonies, travel opportunities improved for private individuals as well. Those who traveled wanted a picture as a memento. Those who could not leave home were pleased when the wide world came to them through paintings. In addition to Italy, which no landscape painter missed in the 19th century, Perlberg painted Spain, Egypt, Nubia, Sudan, and the USA, and traveled to the Holy Land in 1898 in the entourage of Emperor Wilhelm II. His magnificent watercolors were sought after and often reproduced as postcards.

The challenge for every painter of Paestum was to capture the volume of the temples, the height of the columns, and the magnificent overall impression without rendering the temples perspective clumsily as mere piles of column rows. Perlberg addressed the problem by choosing a tighter crop with a slight low-angle view and depth pull, without the exact representation of too many lined-up individual columns, thus conveying a convincing impression of the height and size of the temple. His radiant, light-filled depiction in beautiful colors can compete very well with the works of all the famous predecessors from the 18th and early 19th centuries.