Wuttke – Tivoli near Rome

Carl Wuttke (1849 Trebnitz – 1927 Munich)

TIVOLI NEAR ROME

Oil on canvas, mounted on cardboard, 27 x 20 cm, signed lower right: C. Wuttke and dated lower left: Tivoli 1875, inscribed on the reverse: Riccordo di Tivoli. 1903.

Tivoli, with its mixture of ancient temples and magnificent nature, picturesquely situated and easily accessible from Rome, was a fixed part of the itinerary for travellers on the Grand Tour and was painted and drawn by all the important artists working in Italy from the 17th to the 20th century. Many of the ‘Grand Tourists’ wanted to take home with them the memory of the spectacular Sibyl Temple, located above one of the three waterfalls. Since they could not yet buy a postcard or point their camera at the motif themselves, the artists, who also travelled to Italy in large numbers, had a wonderful market and tried to outdo each other with ever more beautiful works. The landscape painter and world traveller Carl Wuttke, who was otherwise travelling in the USA, China, Egypt, etc., was no exception. His wonderfully loosely painted, light-filled view of Tivoli can easily compete with the works of his famous predecessors.