id: 145764 accession number: 1971.12 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1971.12 updated: 2023-04-26 11:23:55.713000 La Serpentara near Olevano, 1829. Friedrich Preller (German, 1804–1878). Pen and brown ink over black chalk; sheet: 40.8 x 54 cm (16 1/16 x 21 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Delia E. Holden Fund 1971.12 title: La Serpentara near Olevano title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1829 creation date earliest: 1829 creation date latest: 1829 current location: creditline: Delia E. Holden Fund copyright: --- culture: Germany, 19th century technique: pen and brown ink over black chalk department: Drawings collection: DR - German type: Drawing find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Friedrich Preller (German, 1804–1878) - artist --- measurements: Sheet: 40.8 x 54 cm (16 1/16 x 21 1/4 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: description: cream(3) laid paper watermarks: inscriptions: inscription: by artist, lower left, in brown ink: Olevano / alla Serpentara il 2 di Guinio / 1829. translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Year in Review: 1971 opening date: 1971-12-28T05:00:00 Year in Review: 1971. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 28, 1971-February 6, 1972). title: German Drawings of the 18th, 19th, and 20th Centuries opening date: 1980-04-01T05:00:00 German Drawings of the 18th, 19th, and 20th Centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art (April 1-July 13, 1980). title: National Schools of Style opening date: 1983-06-14T04:00:00 National Schools of Style. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 14-September 18, 1983). title: The German Tradition opening date: 1993-04-27T04:00:00 The German Tradition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 27-June 27, 1993). title: Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2000-08-27T00:00:00 Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * C. G. Boerner Graphik-Zeichnungen: Gustav-Siegle-Haus am Leonhardsplatz, Stuttgart; C. G. Boerner Dusseldorf (1971). --- PROVENANCE with C. G. Boerner, Inc., Dusseldorf. date: 1971 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio. date: 1971- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: Like many of his German contemporaries in the early 19th century, here Friedrich Preller relied on precise pen lines only without use of brushwork or wash. digital description: Friedrich Preller studied in Weimer, Dresden, and Antwerp before winning a stipend from Grand Duke Karl Alexander von Sachsen-Weimar to study in Rome. During his years in Italy (1828-31), he formed important ideas about landscape painting that would develop into a long career in Germany as a landscape painter. Like his teacher in Italy, the painter Joseph Anton Koch, Preller was inspired by the area known as La Serpentara around the picturesque mountain village of Olevano, southeast of Rome. He made numerous trips there and was especially struck by the oak forest depicted in this drawing. He inscribed the drawing with the locale and date (2 June 1829) in its lower left corner. His lively pen work leaves the lightest areas in outline only, so that the white of the paper helps record the fresh and bright atmosphere of the scene, set in relief by darker areas of firm, parallel hatching. Preller later wrote about the area around Olevano: "Nowhere was the organic coherence in nature so clear as there, and my observation was mainly directed toward that." wall description: The area known as La Serpentara around the picturesque mountain village of Olevano, southeast of Rome, attracted many German landscapists studying in Italy during the early 1800s. In Preller's words, "Nowhere was the organic coherence in nature so clear as there." He inscribed the locale and date (2 June 1829) in the lower left corner of this drawing to indicate where and when he made it. His meticulous pen work leaves the lightest areas in outline only, so that the white of the paper helps record the fresh and bright atmosphere of the scene. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS C. G. Boerner (firm). Neue Lagerliste Nr. 56. Graphik - Zeichnungen 1971. C.G. Boerner: Dusseldorf, 1971. page number: no. 132, p. 128. url: Cleveland Museum of Art. "The Year in Review for 1971," The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art. Vol. LIX / No. 1 (January, 1972): pp. 3-47. page number: no. 97, p. 43 url: Cleveland Museum of Art, Diane DeGrazia, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000. page number: Mentioned: cat. no. 65, p. 10, pp.160-161, p. 293; Reproduced: p. 161 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1971.12/1971.12_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1971.12/1971.12_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1971.12/1971.12_full.tif