SwissArtGallery · Documented identity
The documented corpus of Ernst Fries includes several landscapes depicting Tivoli, including a canvas that a sale catalogue entry compares with two very similar compositions. Initially trained in Heidelberg and then in Karlsruhe, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich from 1818. That same year, he travelled to Darmstadt, where Georg Moller trained him; he also pursued studies in optics and perspective there.
After travelling on foot in Germany and Switzerland, he set off in 1823 for a study stay in Italy that lasted nearly four years. In Rome, he came into contact with German-speaking artists based in the city, including Joseph Anton Koch and Friedrich Overbeck. Returning to Heidelberg in 1827, he moved to Munich two years later. In 1831, he became court painter to Leopold, Grand Duke of Baden, and then settled in Karlsruhe, where he died in 1833.
Among the works associated with his name is Die Wasserfälle von Tivoli mit dem Ponte Lupo sowie dem Vesta- und Sibyllentempel, an oil on canvas measuring 56.5 × 73.5 cm, probably made around 1830. According to the sale catalogue entry, Sigrid Wechssler, who knew the painting, orally confirmed its attribution to Fries. The same entry compares this composition with two other paintings of Tivoli by the artist. One of them, dated 1830, belongs to the Thurn und Taxis Princely Art Collection in Regensburg. The published provenance of the painting first mentions the collection of Franz Erwein von Schönborn-Wiesentheid, followed by a sale in Munich in 1865. It then records ownership by a noble family in southern Germany from 1875, before an English private owner. Sigrid Wechssler’s monograph and catalogue raisonné of Fries were published in Heidelberg in 2000.
This profile brings together identity references for Ernst Fries and paintings, drawings and works on paper documented in auction catalogues.
Lempertz · Ketterer
References include catalogue entries and available results; they do not all represent completed sales. Attributed works and special lots are excluded from the priced results.
Oil on canvas
Die Wasserfälle von Tivoli mit dem Ponte Lupo sowie dem Vesta- und Sibyllentempel
Öl auf Leinwand
Auction date : 2018-05-16
Published result : 105400 EUR
Including buyer’s premium
Estimate : 18000
View the lot at the auction house ↗Bleistiftzeichnung, teils aquarelliert
Auction date : 2014-11-21
Published result : 5625 EUR
Including buyer’s premium
Estimate : 2000
View the lot at the auction house ↗Bleistiftzeichnungen recto und verso, eine davon prächtig aquarelliert
Auction date : 2014-11-21
Published result : 4625 EUR
Including buyer’s premium
Estimate : 2000
View the lot at the auction house ↗Pencil drawing
Apollinarisberg und Remagen
Bleistiftzeichnung
Auction date : 2008-04-05
Published result : 12600 EUR
Including buyer’s premium
Estimate : 4000
View the lot at the auction house ↗Oil on paper
Studie aus Italien
Öl auf Papier
Auction date : 2004-10-29
Published result : 4914 EUR
Including buyer’s premium
Estimate : 1800
View the lot at the auction house ↗SwissArtGallery documentary note based on the cited sources. Titles, media and qualifications are provided in the profile language; the original catalogue wording remains available in each record.
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