CARL ROTTMANN (1797-1850)
Höher Göll (2,522 m (8,274 ft)
Germany- Austria Border
In "Hoher Göll im Alpenglühen ", 1846, Oil on canvas, 88 × 112 cm
Nuremberg Germanisches Nationalmuseum
The mountain
The Höher Göll is a 2,522 m (8,274 ft) mountain in the Berchtesgaden Alps, the highest peak of the Göll massif, which straddles the border between the German state of Bavaria and Salzburg, Austria.
Rising above Obersalzberg near Berchtesgaden, the massif is situated between the Königssee and the Königsseer Ache in the west, opposite the Watzmann, and the Salzach Valley of the Tennengau region in the east. Neighbouring peaks include Hohes Brett, Jenner and the Kehlstein spur with the famous Kehlsteinhaus, linked with the Hoher Göll via the Mannlgrat ridge.
The first documented ascent was made by the ordinand Valentin Stanič from Bodrež in Gorizia and Gradisca, who at that time studied theology at the nearby University of Salzburg and had also climbed the Watzmann peak.
A wide variety of routes lead to its summit, ranging from UIAA Grade I on a Klettersteig up the Mannlgrat ridge to UIAA Grade VIII up the West face. The Kehlsteinhaus is located on the German side, at 1,834 m. A trail leads from it to the Mannlgrat, the easiest route to the top.
Another popular round-trip ascent of the Hoher Göll is from the Purtschellerhaus mountain hut up to the summit and down to the Stahl-Haus.
The painter
Carl Anton Joseph Rottmann was a German landscape painter and the most famous member of the Rottmann family of painters. Rottmann belonged to the circle of artists around the Ludwig I of Bavaria, who commissioned large landscape paintings exclusively from him. He is best known for mythical and heroising landscapes. The landscape painter Karl Lindemann-Frommel belonged to his school. Rottmann received his first drawing lessons from his father, Friedrich Rottmann, who taught drawing at the university in Heidelberg. He formed himself chiefly through the study of nature and of great masterworks. In his first artistic period, he painted atmospheric phenomena. After gaining prominence with Heidelberg at Sunset (a water color), and Castle Eltz, he settled in Munich in 1822 and devoted himself to Bavarian scenery. Here his second period began, and in 1824 he married Friedericke, the daughter of his uncle, Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell, who served as an attendant at court. Through this connection, he made the acquaintance of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, who in 1826/27 sponsored his travels in Italy in order to widen his repertoire, which up to that point consisted solely of domestic, German, landscapes. In Italy, Rottmann made sketches for the 28 Italian landscapes in fresco which he was commissioned to paint in the arcades of the Hofgarten at Munich. The cycle, completed in 1833, gave visual expression to Ludwig’s alliance with Italy, and raised the genre of landscape painting to the height of history painting, the preferred mode of the King’s other great commissions for monumental painting. The frescos unfortunately deteriorated under climatic influences. The cartoons for them are in the Darmstadt Gallery.
In 1834 Rottmann traveled to Greece to prepare for a commission from Ludwig for a second cycle; one might mark here the beginning of his third period. At first also intended for the Hofgarten arcade, the 23 great landscapes (of which the one above) were eventually installed in the newly built Neue Pinakothek where they were given their own hall.
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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau
