Vedute di Genova

Rare plate depicting views of Genoa, published circa 1828 by the printing house of the Bettalli brothers (imprint in lower center "in Milano Contr. Del Cappello No. 4027") engraved by Caroline von Schlieben Lose, probably from a drawing by her husband Friederich Lose.

"Vedute di Genova” whose compositional pattern has a general view of the city taken from Madonna del Monte (140x197 mm) in the center (140x197 mm) around which are framed twelve small engravings depicting city views (60x90 mm each). On the sides, starting from the first view at the top left and continuing clockwise, we find: Interior of the Ducal Palace - General View from the height known as the Giant - Royal Bridge and Basilica of S. Giorgio - Interior of the University - Albergo dei Poveri - Torsi Doria Palace - Carignano Bridge and Church of the Assumption - Porta della Lanterna - Green Water Square - University Palace - Prince Doria's Palace - Basilica of S. Lorenzo and Negroni Palace.

Friedrich Lohse, a pupil of the German painter and engraver Philip Ludwig Oser, and Caroline von Schlieben, the daughter of a councillor of the Court of Appeal, began dating during their artistic apprenticeship in Dresden, where they were, for some time, also on close friendly terms with the great German writer Heinrich von Kleist, whom they met during a stay in what was then for Germans the "Florence of the North." Friedrich was probably the middle name of Lohse, who was known in Dresden by the later abandoned name of Heinrich. By the time they married he had long been in Paris, perfecting his artistic training. And from Paris they left in 1805, in the retinue of the viceroy of the Kingdom of Italy Eugene Beauharnais, for Milan, where Friedrich found employment at the "French Typographic Bureau," while Caroline initially adapted to sewing textile decorations. With Napoleon having fallen and the Kingdom of Italy having waned in 1814, the couple decided to settle permanently in Milan, devoting themselves to drawing and engraving urban and landscape views of Lombardy in their house on the Naviglio in contrada S. Damiano 299. They thus became Federico and Carolina Lose, he a draughtsman, she an engraver and colorist of her views, two artists who in their representation of the landscape translated the Romantic vision of nature assimilated in their youth on the pages of Rousseau. By 1815 their names were already marked as collaborators in the records of the Artarias and Francesco Bernucca, and in early 1816 the first aquatints drawn by Federico Lose and engraved by Carolina Lose began to appear in the handouts of the album Le bellezze pittoriche di Milano published by Ferdinando Artarìa between 1815 and 1821, and in Viaggio pittorico e storico ai tre laghi Maggiore, di Lugano e Como, published by Francesco Bernucca between 1816 and 1821, where they signed 26 of the album's 56 views.

But it was in 1823 that the couple came to the attention of publishers and print collectors with Viaggio pittorico nei Monti di Brianza, a splendid album of 24 hand-colored engravings, of which they were also the publishers before ceding the reissue rights to the Bettalli brothers. The following year Federico Lose published an album of 16 aquatints engraved and colored by him, Viaggio pittorico e storico al Monte Spluga da Milano a Coira, which was the first illustrated guide to the new tourist route between Lombardy and Europe after the opening of the new Spluga road on the Swiss and Valchiavenna sides. After 1824 their activity came to an end. Federico Lose died in 1833, followed four years later by his wife with whom he had formed one of the most interesting artistic associations in Restoration Lombardy.

Etching, finely hand-colored, in perfect condition. Rare.

Bibliografia

Valentina Squara, Federico e Carolina Lose, in “Grafica d’arte”, n. 58, aprile - giugno 2004, pp. 9-12.